Masters Research Question and Hypothesis? Is my question clear or too vague?

Bob_Ireland

Hi everyone,

I'm struggling to come up with a good thesis title, I think if I nail it everything else will flow easier.

My Reseach Question is “To What Extent Cognitive Overload May Impact Student Performance and Motivation in facilitating Deep Learning in Online Education Using ICT?"

My thesis is based on discovering ways to improve students motivation and performance in an online education. I plan on doing some quantitative research first to discover students current attitude towards the course content and from my findings develop a more effective and motivation platform for them to use. I intend to do this by Incorporating different learning styles discovered through the research and applying instructional design theories to further improve the courses. But is my title overcomplicating it or is it okay? any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.


I think my question might not be clear and needs restructuring.
What hypothesis could be made from the research question?

Thanks

Tom Dunne

Let's dissect this a little bit.

The first part of your RQ is already making an assumption:

To What Extent Cognitive Overload May Impact

the assumption being that cognitive overload has an impact. I would argue that you are almost predetermining the outcome. I would suggest something like "Does Cognitive Overload impact...."

The next part is "Student Performance" - are you clear on what student performance is? How is it measured? Is it easily determined, or is it highly subjective? Is it a simple score/percentage in a test? You need to be clear how this is measured.

Motivation, I believe (and not being familiar with it), is relatively easy to measure, is it not? So I think you may be ok on this part.

And on to "facilitating Deep Learning" - is this "motivation in facilitating deep learning"? Or is facilitating deep learning a separate component? If so, how do you measure "deep learning" as opposed to "student performance"? Are they two sides of the same coin?

And finally, "Online Education Using ICT" - isn't all online education delivered using ICT? So I would argue this part (Using ICT) is redundant.

Bob_Ireland

Hi Tom,

Thank you for your informative reply,

Yes, I suppose the RQ I asked is already an answer to itself. Rephrasing it slightly might make more applicable.

In performance I mean if the students learning outcomes have been met and that the scores in the test reflect that. Would it be advisable to change the wording or performance or explain it in my thesis? maybe learning outcomes would be a better option?
I see what you mean by facilitating deeper learning it's similar to performance, I could be repeating myself with that?
I was considering change performance to satisfaction as there's a lot of research in that area too,

If I was to restructure my question maybe it would look something like this:

“Does Cognitive Overload Impact Students Satisfaction and Motivation in facilitating Learning Outcomes in Online Education?
A Case Study to Improve the eLearning Development at
COmpany Name."
Would that be a more constructed RQ?

Thanks for your help

Tom Dunne

I'd wonder about the part "facilitating learning outcomes". You don't facilitate them, you achieve them. See my previous point on attainment.

Also, "online education" would sound better as "online learning", I think.

And finally, just a pedantic point - students is both plural and denotes ownership, so there should be an apostrophe after students: students'. I think making it a singular (i.e. student) would read better. As in, "student satisfaction and motivation".

Bob_Ireland

Thanks for the reply, you have given me great advice on my topic,
I have a better understanding of how to structure my RQ,

"“Does Cognitive Overload Impact Student Satisfaction and Motivation in achieving Learning Outcomes in Online Learning?"

Only thing left to do is write up my thesis

Cheers