Quantitative Research that adopts the Quasi-Experimental Design

In designing a quantitative research project, would you prefer to use an experimental design or a survey? Say why.
A quantitatve research describes trends or explains relationship(s) between variables. In general, 2 designs could be adopted: Experimental Design or Survey Design. The choice is however dependent on the desired outcomes (i.e. the intent of the study).

Experimental design is used when we want to study the possible "Cause-and-Effect" of the relationship between variables. Hypothesis testing comes into the picture.

Survey designs does not carry out experiments. It describes trends in the data and focuses on attitudes, behaviours and characteristics of a population.

In my research study that studies the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on students' ability to communicate their mathematical understanding, I am looking at the "Cause-and-effect" relationship between the independent variable, "Web 2.0 technologies" on the dependent variable "students' ability to communicate their mathematical understanding", hence the experimental design is adopted.

In reference to your choice, discuss the intent of the research, the research questions, and the hypothesis and research objectives.
Give examples to illustrate your meaning.

The Intent of the research sets the direction of the entire studies.

• In my project, the intent is to find out the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on students' ability to communicate their mathematical understanding.

The Research Question relates the independent variable with the dependent variable, which brings out the "Cause-and-Effect" relationship that the study sets to examine

• The question is "What is the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on students' ability to communicate their mathematical understanding", which relates the independent variable "Web 2.0 technologies" to the dependent variable "students' ability to communicate their mathematical understanding"

The Hypothesis is the conjecture on the outcome. The prediction, in this case is

• The use of Web 2.0 technologies will improve students' ability to communicate their mathematical understanding
  

Discuss key factors to consider when designing the experimental research or the survey.
Discuss how you might manage these factors throughout the study through data collection and analysis. Give examples.

Several factors are be considered when adopting the Experimental Design:

1. Random Assignment - by assigning the individuals randomly to groups, it 'distributes' the variability across the groups

2. Control of extraneous factors that could influence the data collected, hence making it unsuitable for comparison

3. Manipulation of Treatment Conditions - in the experimental condition, researchers intervene to alter conditions experienced by the experimental unit

4. Outcome measures - the outcome is the dependent variable, which is the presumed effect on the treatment variable. It is also the effect predicted in the hypothesis.

5. Group comparison

6. Threats to validity- internal and external
Internal threats might include maturity of individuals over time, the procedures carried out
External threats could be the interaction between setting and treatment