Research Is Great, But You Still Gotta Ask The Right Question
April 14, 2009 – 10:36 am | by Daryl TayAwhile ago, the Singapore Management University Students Association (SMUSA) did a large scale electronic survey to SMU students, asking them about satisfaction/dissatisfaction with various aspects of the school ranging from facilities, grading, professors and so on. The premise of this survey was so that they could know what the general population is feeling, and act on it.
Post-survey, I saw this pasted to one of the pillars in SMU:
SA Research
Here’s the thing though. I walked past this and immediately thought: This means 43% (or almost half) of SMU students don’t feel a sense of belonging to SMU. Wouldn’t that be a more grabbing or immediate statistic to display and act on?
Also, the poster asks those are in that 57%, who do feel a sense of belonging, if they have something to say about it. Wouldn’t it be more productive to ask those in the 43% to ask them if they have something to say about it?
That said, I’m not a research major. Would anyone who is like to chime in?
Tags: asking the right question, dissatisfaction, electronic survey, facilities, grading, professors, Research, research major, satisfaction, sense of belonging, singapore management university, smu students, smu students association, smusa
9 Responses to “Research Is Great, But You Still Gotta Ask The Right Question”
By Ridz on Apr 14, 2009 | Reply
Hahaha…I think the person who created(and the ones who approved) that probably got suckered into the “show only the good stuff” marketing.
By Daryl Tay on Apr 14, 2009 | Reply
@Ridz: That did cross my mind! Like okay it’s almost 50/50, let’s choose the “good” 50% and use that instead…
By Ridz on Apr 14, 2009 | Reply
Haha…imagine one of the 57 percent-er reading it…
“57% feel a sense of belonging”
Are you one of them?
-> Hell yeah!
Have something to say?
->Oh yeah! I’m loving it!(say it in the MacDonald’s way)
Want a direct reponse?
-> You mean all the admin come down and we all go, “We’re Lovin it!” together? yeah baby!
…ok, sorry for crapping. I think all our universities make funny errors in their marketing these days…
By jzztzz on Apr 14, 2009 | Reply
I’m surprised the number is so high!
By Ephraim Loy on Apr 14, 2009 | Reply
I think whether you say 57% or 43% is not right. Is it reflective of the whole SMU population or just only those who responded to the survey? My guess is the latter.
In that case, one has to look at the sample size and determine if it is a good reflection of the SMU population or not.
just my thoughts.
By Daryl Tay on Apr 14, 2009 | Reply
@jzztzz: Haha 57% actually is quite high, especially when you compare it to the amount of griping you hear around campus.
@Ephraim Loy: Of course it’s representative of the sample and not the population, but that problem is inherent in all research isn’t it? Maybe the data isn’t 100% representative, or even 70% representative. But if that’s all one has, that’s what one has to work with…. The point is after having the data (assuming it was collected to the best of one’s ability), moving forward with that data is an important step too.
By Piper on Apr 14, 2009 | Reply
Perhaps the research question is what makes students feel a sense of belonging?
The smaller print does mention dissatisfaction so I am going to assume that this is open to all, including the 47% who are unhappy. I bet they just wanted to advertise the nice numbers.
By Daryl Tay on Apr 15, 2009 | Reply
@Piper: I’m pretty sure they did. I mean I’m hoping that was the intention of the poster and survey (ie to find out the source of dissatisfaction). The issue I have with, as you say, advertising the nice numbers, and only including the “meat” in the smaller print, is that it just makes it to easy to wave the issue aside, as Ridz points out in his comment..
By Teekay on Apr 15, 2009 | Reply
i think if they put up 43% negative, certain offices might come after them and get them to pull down the posters cos it looks bad…
actually, 57% feeling a sense of belonging pretty much caught my attention… cos i went, “no shit?!” lol… anyway, i agree that it is also very skewed, cos those who dont feel a sense of belonging probably did not even care about doing the survey… er hem…