Research Methodology Essay

This chapter includes research method, setting of the study, subject of the study, source of data, procedure of the study, project design, hardware and software requirements and statistical treatment. Research Method The researchers used the descriptive method together with the developmental research to come up with desired system. Descriptive research is concerned with the description of data and characteristics about a population. The goal is the acquisition of factual, accurate and systematic data that can be used in averages, frequencies and similar statistical calculations. Descriptive studies seldom involve experimentation, as they are more concerned with naturally occurring phenomena than with the observation of controlled situations. [1] The researchers believes that the descriptive method of research is appropriate for their system because it is easy to analyze, interpret the data gathered information and understand data that are easily recognizable. They chose to use this method because the descriptive research design enable researchers to describe or present the picture of a phenomenon or phenomena under investigation and it also includes many particular research methodologies and procedures, such as observations, surveys, self-reports, and tests. Developmental research, A term describing the systematic use and practical application of investigative findings and theories of a scientific or technical nature toward the design, development, testing, evaluation or improvement of useful products to meet specific performance requirements but exclusive of manufacturing and production engineering. Extramural activities which are primarily for development of training materials and curricula should be identified as Developmental Research. [2] Developmental research, as opposed to simple instructional development, has been defined as the systematic study of designing, developing, and evaluating instructional programs, processes, and products that must meet criteria of  internal consistency and effectiveness. Developmental research is particularly important in the field of instructional technology. The most common types of developmental research involve situations in which the product-development process is analyzed and described, and the final product is evaluated. A second type of developmental research focuses more on the impact of the product on the learner or the organization. A third type of study is oriented toward a general analysis of design development or evaluation processes as a whole or as components. A fundamental distinction should be made between reports of actual developmental research (practice) and descriptions of design and development procedural models (theory). Although it has frequently been misunderstood, developmental research has contributed much to the growth of the field as a whole, often serving as a basis for model construction and theorizing.[3] The researchers used the development research method because the researchers aimed to come up with a system not yet developed before. Setting of the study The application of the developed system is focused in Eastroad Apartelle in Binangonan, Rizal. It is located at Nt’l Rd., Hi-way Calumpang, Binangonan, Rizal near the tennis court and the municipal hall. The Apartelle is fully operational since July 8, 2006 when it is first started as a small inn. At this moment, the apartelle has 23 rooms now and 8 employees and still growing. Their Mission is to be recognized as the leading Apartelle in the Binangonan area with disciplined, happy and highly-skilled staff committed to giving the highest standard of service. They envision themselves as leading and dominating in terms of lodging industry in Rizal. Subject of the study The Eastroad Apartelle Logging/Billing System is developed because there was this urge to boost their quality of service by modernizing the way of their business. Thus, the study will focus on the staff of the apartelle as the respondents because they are the ones who are in charge of maintaining the good reputation of the apartelle. Definitely, it will affect their way of transacting through the introduction of technology in their methodology. The perceptions of the staff and of the customers will be evaluated through an adopted questionnaire. The researchers chose the 8 staff of the Eastroad Apartelle because the researchers observed that they could need more up to date methods of transactions. The chosen respondents consist of 1 secretary, 3 front desk officers, 2 restaurant crew and 2 service crews. Since there are only eight staff members in the apartelle, the researchers decided to conduct the study with all of them as the respondents which will also evaluate the system by answering the questionnaire checklist and test the developed Eastroad Apartelle Lodging and Billing System. Source of data The researchers gathered the primary source of data through the adapted questionnaire and interviews with the respondents. They also used secondary sources of data such as reading materials, like books that are related to the said study and surfing different websites. Procedure of the study At first, the researchers will start the identification of the problem and tackle the different aspects of the problem and its possible solutions. Second, they will formulate some titles. After being approved through the title defense, the researchers will now start gathering some data by means of interviewing and doing some on-site observations. After that, the researchers will start to write Chapters 1 and 2 which they will defend sooner. Project Design System Flowchart and Algorithm System Flowchart Algorithm When the user was about to explore the logging/billing system: 1. Start 2. Login 3. Select room category whether it is: 3.1 Standard type 3.1.1 Select how many hours to check in 3.1.2 Select available room and pay the initial bill 3.1.3 If check in time reach limit, decide whether to extend or check out 3.2 Economy type 3.2.1 Select how many hours to check in 3.2.2 Select available room and pay the initial bill 3.2.3 If check in time reach limit, decide whether to extend or check out 3.3 Budget type 3.3.1 Select how many hours to check in 3.3.2 Select available room and pay the initial bill 3.3.3 If check in time reach limit, decide whether to extend or check out 4. End Hardware and software requirements Hardware The system will be running by the use of a computer set (monitor, system unit, mouse, keyboard and speaker or earphone). The following parts are MSI H61M-E33/W8 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard, G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Ram, Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5†³ 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive, NVIDIA NVS 300 512MB Graphics Card, Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply, A4tech OP-620/ 720 PS2 Optical Mouse, A4tech KBS-720A PS2 Keyboard, and Creative 2.0 SBS A40 USB Powered Speakers. The respondents used the mouse for clicking their desired service to be rendered to their customers and the monitor for viewing the contents of their transactions. Software The researchers will be using Microsoft Visual Studio 6 and Microsoft Office 2007. Minimum system requirements to be able to run the software are as follows: PC with Pentium-class processor; Pentium 90 or higher processor recommended, Microsoft Windows 95 or later operating system or Windows NT operating system version 4.0 with Service Pack 3 or later (Service Pack 3 included) , 24 MB of RAM for Windows 95 (32 MB recommended); 24 MB for Windows NT 4.0 (32 MB recommended) , Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 1 (included) , Hard disk space: Typical installation: 116 MB,  Maximum installation: 135 MB, Additional hard disk space may be required for the following products: Internet Explorer: 43 MB typical, 59 MB maximum MSDN: 57 MB typical, 493 MB maximum, Windows NT Option Pack: 20 MB for Windows 95; 200 MB for Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 run on Windows NT 4.0 only and require the following additional hard disk space: SQL Server: 80 MB typical, 95MB maximum. The researchers chose to use Microsoft Visual Studio 6 (Visua l Basic 6). Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to develop console and graphical user interface applications along with Windows Forms applications, web sites, web applications, and web services in both native code together with managed code for all platforms supported by Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, .NET Framework, .NET Compact Framework and Microsoft Silverlight. Visual Studio includes a code editor supporting IntelliSense as well as code refactoring. The integrated debugger works both as a source-level debugger and a machine-level debugger. Other built-in tools include a forms designer for building GUI applications, web designer, class designer, and database schema designer. It accepts plug-ins that enhance the functionality at almost every level—including adding support for source-control systems (like Subversion and Visual SourceSafe) and adding new toolsets like editors and visual designers for domain-specific languages or toolsets for other aspects of the software development lifecycle (like the Team Foundation Server client: Team Explorer). Visual Studio supports different programming languages by means of language services, which allow the code editor and debugger to support (to varying degrees) nearly any programming language, provided a language-specific service exists. Built-in languages include C/C++ (via Visual C++), VB.NET (via Visual Basic .NET), C# (via Visual C#), and F# (as of Visual Studio 2010[7]). Support for other languages such as M, Python, and Ruby among others is available via language services installed separately. It also supports XML/XSLT, HTML/XHTML, JavaScript and CSS. Individual language-specific versions of Visual Studio also exist which provide more limited language services to the user: Microsoft Visual Basic, Visual J#, Visual C#, and Visual C++. [4] Also, the researchers will use Microsoft Access 2007 or latest. Microsoft Access is a computer application used to create and manage computer-based databases on desktop computers  and/or on connected computers (a network). Microsoft Access can be used for personal information management (PIM), in a small business to organize and manage data, or in an enterprise to communicate with servers. [5] Statistical Treatment Weighted mean has been chosen by the researchers to measure the acceptability of the developed system by the beneficiary. Range (1-5)Verbal Interpretation Scale 4.20 – 5.00Strongly Accepted5 3.20 – 4.19Accepted4 2.60 – 3.19Moderately Accepted3 1.80 – 2.59Not Accepted2 1.0 – 1.79Strongly Not Accepted1 Notes 1http://www.ehow.com/about_6663890_meaning-descriptive-method-research_.html 2http://cnc.ucr.edu/ecaf/glossary.html 3http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED373753&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED373753 4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_Studio 5http://www.functionx.com/access/Lesson01.htm