Throughout this research, there were many takeaways that could be discussed. Firstly, I must say that my research skills before this class were almost 100% based on literature reviews and research papers completed for my General Education courses at my previous community college. However, in this course I was able to conduct and analyze true research with my peers. The thought of conducting research was exciting to me as it is something I have always been interested in doing; however, I truly did not know the task that was going to be put in front of me.
One of the first tasks that we conducted in class was the ethics training and paperwork that needed to be completed per out university policy. After we were approved it was all uphill from there. We created our survey, and that is when I learned the best ways you should word questions and the types of question that would be best when analyzing at a later date. One the surveys were returned, I had the shock of my life when I was told we would be coding our information to analyze the findings. This is something I was not familiar with, however was glad that it was part of this research due to the fact it is an important skill I can use throughout life and in other courses.
After the analyses of the information, this is when I was given the chance to expand on my writing abilities. I learned how to write each section of the paper, just as we read in online articles. Writing has not always been my strongest point, however after writing this Program Evaluation, I feel much more confident in not only writing this type of literature, but also in reading similar writings in the future.