Study Design

StudyDesign

Thestudy analyzed the effect of computer simulation in the improvementof students’ score. From the results, there were significantimprovements in the scores in the computer simulation group however,it cannot be concluded that computer simulation improves students’performance because the samples used in the two cases were different.From the analysis of pretest performance, most of the studentsparticipating in the computer simulation program had lower scorescompared to the students participating in the actual frog dissectionsession. Higher scores were still recorded under the group havingactual dissection process compared to the students under the computersimulation program guidance. Also, from the data provided, there wasa high standard deviation in the computer simulation category than inthe actual dissection group(Yin, 2013).

Someof the flaws in the study design included poor sample selection andthus the results obtained were biased. In either case, the studentsimproved their scores in the posttest compared to the pretest. Theteacher was selective in the sample recruitment in the two categoriesand these results to the error associated with sample biasness. Thesample group under actual frog dissection could have been used as thecontrol in the study however, there are predetermined differencesbetween the two samples and this makes the design unreliable. Toimprove the reliability and validity in the study, the teacher couldhave randomly selected the participants in each category to ensurethat the study design is well-constructed. Random selection wouldhave given a true picture of the effect of the computer simulationson the anatomy performances among the learners (Yin,2013).Also, the data analysis could have been analyzed by comparing themean scores of the two groups rather than the difference betweenpretest and posttest performances.

References

Yin,R. K. (2013).&nbspCasestudy research: Design and methods.Sage publications.