Hi,
I'm new to the forum and have my preliminary exams in 2 weeks. I'm trying to create a good research question around the use of pod casts in undergraduate education. Does anyone have advice on how to word the research question?

well, in general, i should think your question should be fairly open. so that it can't take as answer a simple "yes" or "no" - that would make a short dissertation! and also so it doesn't preclude the answer. word it so that it is clear what you want to research, but that it leaves you the space to go where your research takes you.

apart from that, i found one of my methods-lecturer's system of "type a" and "type b" questions very useful for ordering my thoughts. in this system, a "type a" question is a quite general, large, abstract question, such as "how are intergenerational relations affected by 'aging societies'?" you will most likely not ANSWER that question, as it is far to big for a PhD thesis. but you will ADDRESS this question, contribute a little to it's understanding, by ANSWERING a number of "type b" questions. these are far more precise questions, and they qualify as "type b" questions if the answering of them contributes to the knowledge about your "type a" question.

so, possible type B questions for above type A question could be "what are the material aspects of intergenerational relations, influenced by the 'ageing' of society, as concerning inheritance?" or/and "how are care relationships between generations influenced by the 'ageing' of society?" etc. in theory, you write up a whole list of "candidates" for your "type B" questions, which you constantly update, and then select a few from this list. a next step would then be to identify "aspects", things you need to find out, measure, know, in order to ANSWER your "type B" questions, (again in order to ADDRESS your "type A" question).

for the above type B questions, "aspects" might be "how much is being inherited by whom these days, how much was inherited by whom previously, and how much is expected to be inherited by whom in the future?" and "in the past and in the present, who cares for who intergenerationally, at which ages, in which circumstances, how are these care relationships structured?"
hope this helps!

Is this for your PhD topic? Or just general? To frame the question, you should think about angles... what is it about podcasting you want to focus on? Its use in undergrad ed? What area? What subject? By students? By lecturers? By both? Are you interested in podcasting as a learning object, e.g. in design for e-learning? There are lots of different approaches you could take. You might make a good start by going to look at the Duke iPod initiative... http://www.duke.edu/ddi/ There has been quite a lot of work in this area... so you may find it difficult to find something especially novel...

Thanks for the advice! This question is for my dissertation topic. I'm taking my preliminary exams next week and my advisor has asked for the research question I am going to do my dissertation around. It's hard because somehow my advisor thinks I know how to ask the question - I'm a little perplexed and this forum has already helped!

My interest is in undergraduate managerial accounting students creating a podcast about concepts in accounting as their class presentation assignment. What I really want to know is their perspectives about using podcasts in a course - is it effective, did they feel more motivated to do this as a podcast vs. powerpoint. I'm still trying to figure all the details out. That's why I wanted to get some help from other grad students.

Hi usedbrain,

Your research question is the key issue as this will set the whole of the dissertation. Thus it is something to think carefully about and it is important to see the subject from different angles. Asking others for their views is also helpful.

Your research question will set your method. E.g. if would ask a very explicit question like "Which elements are useful" you probably will use a quantitive method like a survey. If you want to know "Why" these elements are useful, you will need to use qualitative techniques.

You can also look at this the other way round: Which methods can I use, are feasable and valid, this will have an impact on how to pose the research question.

Good luck