Students will take the topic that they have been working on for their previous assessments and generate a further research question relevant to the business problem/scenarios they have worked on already and write a simple research proposal designed to collect evidence that answers the research question and addresses the problem. Activities in the tutorials are designed to assist students to complete the relevant sections of the report. The proposal should be around 1500 words in length excluding references and it must include the following sections. These sections with more information are provided in a Pebblepad Template available through the Pebblepad link in the learnjcu subject site. -Analyzing the Business Decision or Problem In this section you describe your analysis of the business decision or problem (you may use a diagram to assist in this explanation) and identify and describe the information that you would need to address it. You should finish with a specific research question that you would need to answer to get this information. (250-300 words) -The Overall Research Design – Evaluating Options In this section you should assess the major research designs in terms of how well they fit your research question. At the end of the section you should use this assessment to decide on the design that you would use to address your research questions and why you think this is the best option. (250-300 words) -What are the Key Variables and How Will you Measure Them? Here you will use the information and conclusions from all previous sections to identify and describe the main variables that you need to include or consider in the proposed research in order to answer your research question. Then take each of these variables and describe how you will measure them. (250-300 words) -Sample Requirements & Sampling Options In this section you must describe the details of the sample that you require to answer the research question and describe options for accessing this sample. Explain your decisions in detail. Where appropriate, discuss what sample size might be needed and why – use of the appropriate formula must be explained and justified. (300-500 words) -Ethical Issues Here, identify and discuss the specific ethical issues associated with research design and sampling procedure you have chosen for your proposed research. You must also suggest options for dealing with these issues. You must explain your decisions in detail. (250-300 words) -References You must list here any references in APA style (https://libguides.jcu.edu.au/apa ) that you have used in the body of the proposal to support your statements. You must use in text citations (see https://libguides.jcu.edu.au/c.php?g=162354&p=1063055 for an example and https://libguides.jcu.edu.au/c.php?g=162333&p=1063240 for more information). References are not included in the word count.
