Research Reflection

Upon reaching the end of the research process there are many things that I have learnt along the way. As a quick reminder, the question I was focusing on was the correlation between commuting distance to the university and early morning class motivations. From what I found during the research project, there was a moderate correlation between the length of the distance and the individual’s motivation for the class.

The strongest finding I had was that people living for than 60 minutes away struggled the most due to their long commutes. I really enjoyed the entire research process and I realised the importance that research has and how it can affect the lives of others. However, if I were to redo this project, there are a few things I would do differently.

Due to the depth of the research project, it was very limited in the data that I could collect. If in the future I had the opportunity to create a full-scale research project, I would have more data to analyse and hopefully a stronger finding in the end. A wider-scale investigation into commuting distances and early morning classes could produce a more influential finding to convince the University of the problems their students are truly facing.

Another part of the project I would like to adapt is my research methods. I used interviews and a survey to collect my data which were very helpful in both collecting qualitative and quantitative data. However, I would like to conduct more interviews to gather further viewpoints and possibly also conduct a group interview to get ideas bouncing off of each other, to possibly gather ideas on how their situation can improve.

The requirements that this project needed did limit how much I could put into the project and findings that I could draw from the data. I believe if there was more time and more research ability, the project would turn out with stronger conclusions. Either way, I enjoyed the entire process and can see where things can be improved. Hopefully, later on down the track, I will have more learning opportunities like this to develop my skills in research.