S.R.S.D. Memorial Shiksha Shodh Sansthan, Agra, India
Keywords: Internet, web resources, Educational Research Methodology.
Introduction
Experience is said to be a great teacher. This experience may be gained by the learner
through direct & indirect means. Direct access to the source for gaining firsthand experience is
neither always possible nor desirable. Consequently most of our learning is based on second
hand experiences in the form of information received by us about the objects, places, persons,
ideas and events. This information provides a base for knowledge and understanding about them
and the environment surrounding them. For this purpose the learner must be able to learn the art
of getting information, store and make its use as and when desired. Such type of activities are
said to be the part and parcel of ICT.
UTOPIA OF GLOBAL EDUCATION
A Peer Reviewed Refereed International Research Journal
ONLINE ISSN-2454-7387 Volume II, Issue I, June 2016, pp. 47-59
www.srsshodhsansthan.org
Web Resources for Educational Research Methodology: A Web Survey
Dr. Ajay Surana1 & Anita Jain
2
1HoD & Associate Professor,
2 Research Scholar
Faculty of Education, Banasthali Vidyapith
Banasthali, Rajasthan, India
Abstract
Thousands and thousands of multimedia web resources are available on internet on
different subjects and in various forms of text, images, ppt, audio-video file, etc. which has become
an important source for the research supervisor, teacher educator, research scholar and post
graduate students of Educational Research Methodology. This paper is the result of web survey and
analysis of the availability of web resources for Educational Research Methodology on internet and
identifies and classifies them on the basis of their type of web page format, media, language and
cost. The web survey is conducted through five search engines and predefined search keywords of
Educational Research Methodology. Total 248 web resources sites have been identified related to
25 keywords of Educational Research Methodology. Most of the resources are found through a
single popular search engine. 98% resources are available in text form. 95% web resources are
found cost free. Most of the web resources are available for theoretical orientation and about 44%
web pages are available in HTML format and less no. of resources are available in MP3 format.
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Use of ICT in education has the advantages like lower cost, time saving, flexibility, faster
response, greater effectiveness, better morale, greater competitiveness and easy access to
information and resources. Information via internet is available anytime, anywhere which makes
it popular choice for the people of information exchange. Influence of internet is predominant in
the field of education. IAMAIi surveyed that 60% Indian urban access internet for education.
ii
Researches and evaluation indicate that exposure to ICTs has really changed the lives of lecturers
and students in tremendous and positive ways. The process of learning has gone beyond learning
from prescribed text books. Today aspirers can satiate their thirst for knowledge by means of
internet. As wealth of information and knowledge is available on internet in different area and
context and this wide variety of knowledge is there in varied forms like text, audio, picture,
animations and in different languages etc.
So many studies have been conducted on ICT and education, use of internet in research
and studies related to e-resources. Carroll (2011) found that new technologies are transforming
current literacy practices and challenging what it means to be literate while Burkle, M. (2005)
reported that the increasing use of ICTs has brought changes to teaching and learning at all levels
of higher education systems.
Kumar, A. & Monika (2013), Agarwal, U. & Rajesh (2009) and Bhatti, R. (2010)
found that most of the respondents use internet for education and research. Parameshwar and
Patil (2009) found that all respondents have knowledge of Internet and nearly half of them use
the Internet for research but finding relevant information and information overload are the major
problems for them. Aqil Mohammad & Parvez (2011) concluded that Internet-based
information was the most satisfactory one for them but they faced the problem of information
overload. Purcell, K. and et. al. (2011) said that student can take advantage of the availability of
educational material in engaging multimedia formats, and many become more self reliant
researchers.
Illingworth (2001) concluded that World Wide Web has opened new horizons and
provided access to a new frontier and tool for the researcher. Pant, G. (2013) concluded that
sufficient study material is available on internet for different branches of biology, languages,
utility, multimedia and its cost. Margam, M. (2010) revealed that Electronic resources have
become an integral part of the information needs of research scholars.
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Stuart Reeves and et.al. (2011) revealed that both faculty and students used e-resources
to access information available worldwide for teaching, learning and research. Lohar &
Roopshree (2006) concluded that the respondents were using electronic resources for finding
relevant information for research purpose but the main barrier to use electronic resources is too
much information.
In higher education (M.Ed & Ph.D.) Research Methodology is an important subject. To
understand Research Methodology is not really an easy task. Many even experienced student
researchers feel perplexed when it comes to Research Methodology as it requires much time
and devotion as well as profound knowledge of the subject matter. To teach this subject,
Teachers and Teacher Educators need up-to-date course material so that they can improve their
subject competency as well as can impart the quality education and satisfy the content need of
students.
M.Ed./M.Phil. /Ph.D. students refer books and library to access the desired content of
research methodology but they can’t get information any time anywhere from these resources.
Hence, they waste both time and money. On the whole, vast resources of knowledge/content are
available on internet. But the question is that are sufficient web resources of Educational
Research Methodology available on internet? If yes, where, on which link and in what
form? Nobody knows completely neither students nor teacher educators and research scholars.
They browse so many websites one by one to find out the relevant information. To find the
proverbial needle in this hay stack they consume their precious time and money. They need to
link their lessons or matter with the latest course material but do they have enough time to collect
material from various resources. The users, who do not know the right link, have to search lot of
websites to get desired content/knowledge. Sometimes these websites appear as pay site or ask
for login or subscription. So if they are provided such type of base, where they can get all the
reliable web resources at one place, will help them to access the study material of Educational
Research Methodology. It will prove a great advantage to them. They will be able to save their
precious time and money. They can improve their subject competency which is necessary for
students to improve their academic performances and for teachers and teacher educators to get
mastery over their subjects and for research scholar to do quality research. From the above
discussion, the following question may arise for research that-
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Thousands and thousands of web resources are available on internet on different subjects.
Is it possible to identify and classify the availability of web resources for Educational
Research Methodology?
The Internet has a multitude of multimedia resources including online text, images, audio
files, interactive websites etc. Are available web resources for Educational Research
Methodology appearing in different forms like text, audio, picture, animations?
Information on internet is available free, full text, without registration, login or
subscription. Student can now have access to libraries around the world. Some charge a
fee but most provide free services. Is information of Educational Research Methodology
on internet is also available free or on payment? To find out the answers of all these
questions this study intends to investigate the following objectives.
Objectives
1. To identify the availability of web resources for Educational Research Methodology on
internet.
2. To classify the available web resources for Educational Research Methodology on the
basis of their types of web page format, usages, media and cost.
Hypothesis
The followings are the statements for hypotheses-
1. Sufficient web resources of Educational Research Methodology are available on internet.
2. We can classify the web resources of Educational Research Methodology on the basis of
its type of web page format, usages, media and cost.
2.1 Web resources of Educational Research Methodology are equally available on the basis
of their types of web page format.
2.2 Web resources of Educational Research Methodology are equally available on the basis
of used media of web pages.
2.3 Web resources of Educational Research Methodology are equally available on the basis
of usage of web pages.
2.4 Web resources of Educational Research Methodology are equally available on the basis
of cost of web pages.
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Methods
I. Research Methodology
In present research content analysis and survey method have been used and to fulfill the
objectives data has been collected from internet searches using the search engines and the
predefined keywords of Educational Research Methodology. The first 50 web sites on each
particular keyword have been identified and evaluated on the basis of its type, media, usage and
cost. Frequency and percentage analysis techniques have been employed to analyse the
Qualitative and quantitative data. Result has been interpreted with the help of graphical
representation and descriptive statistic.
II. Population and Sample
The population of this study includes all the search engines and infinite web pages available on
internet. Through purposive sampling following search engines have been taken in sample-
1) Google 2) AltaVista 3) HotBot 4) MSN 5) Ask
Next, 25 search keywords have been selected related to Educational Research Methodology.
Overall 6250 websites will be searched on all 5 search engines as follows:
25 search key words x 50 (web sites) = 1250 web sites
5(search engine) x 1250 (web sites) = 6250 web sit
III. Tools and Techniques
A research instrument is a tool used to collect data. In this research, self-made checklist has
been constructed to evaluate the features of available web resources as shown in appendix
1.Percentage analysis has been used to analyse the data.
Results and Discussion
First objective, “To identify the availability of web resources for Educational Research
Methodology”, has been achieved by using the five most popular search engines viz. Google,
Alta Vista, Hot Bot, Bing & Ask.com. With the help of 25 predefined search keywords related to
Educational Research Methodology, 248 web resources sites have been identified on internet.
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Table -1 Available Web resources on Different Search Engines
Search engines Frequency of web
resources
%
Google 106 43
Alta Vista 39 15
Hot Pot 40 16
MSN 34 14
ASK 29 12
Total 248
The table 1 shows that 106 web sites are found on Google, 39 on AltaVista, 40 on Hot
Bot, 34 on MSN and only 29 were found on Ask.com. From the above table it is analyzed the
most of the web resources (43%) are searched through Google search engine and contribution of
ask.com is least. Thus, it is clear that adequate numbers of web resources are available on
internet related to Educational Research Methodology and it is possible to identify them with the
help of search engines. Thus hypothesis 1 is accepted, according to the result of the research.
Further to fulfill second objective, “To classify the web resources of Educational
Research Methodology on the basis of its type of web page format, usages, media and cost”, the
identified web resources have been classified on the basis of their types of web page format as
shown in graph 1.
Graph – 1 The available web page format
0
20
40
60
PDF HTML MP3 PPT DOC Others
23
44
1
18
6 7
Fre
qu
en
cy %
of
we
b p
age
fo
rmat
Type of Web Page Format
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Graph 1 reveals that 44% of the web resources cited in the study are available in HTML
format, 23% web resources are in PDF format, 18% in PPT, 6% in DOC, 1% in MP3 and 7% are
available in other format. It is clear from the above graph that most of the web pages are
available in HTML format and few in MP3, so content of MP3 format should be uploaded more
on internet.
On the basis of the above analysis it is observed that web resources of Educational
Research Methodology are not available equally on the basis of their types of web pages. Thus
hypothesis 2.1 is partially accepted.
Usages
After this they are classified on the basis of their usage. The identified data has been
evaluated and sorted in three categories viz. theoretical orientation, data analysis and report
writing for Educational Research Methodology. The graph 2 shows that almost 100% web
resources are found useful for the theoretical orientation, 39% web resources for data analysis
and 26% web resources for report writing.
Graph -2 Available web resources on the basis of its usage.
It is clear from the above graph 2 that almost all identified web resources are useful for
theoretical orientation of Educational Research Methodology and less number of identified web
resources is useful for report writing.
But it is found that web resources of Educational Research Methodology are not equally
available on the basis of usages. Thus, the above hypothesis 2.2 is partially accepted according to
the results.
0
50
100
TheoreticalOrientation
DataAnalysis
ReportWriting
100
39 26
per
cen
tag
e
Usages
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Media
Further in the process of data collection and classification it is observed that web
resources of Educational Research Methodology are available in different media forms like text,
picture, animation, graphic and video. Some web resources are available in more than one form
of media i.e. some are found in text with picture, some in text with graphic etc.
Graph-3 Available multimedia content
The above graph 3 shows that 98% web resources are available in text format, 27% in
picture form and 22%, 6% and 5% resources are available respectively in graphic, video and
animation. It can be concluded that web resources in multimedia is available in adequate amount
and it is possible to classify them on the basis of multimedia content. But it is found that they are
not equally available on the basis of media used for web pages. Thus, the hypothesis 2.3 is partially
accepted according to the results.
Cost
Further these identified web resources have been classified on the basis of its cost as the
web resources on internet are available on cost or cost free.
Table- 2 No. of web resources on the basis of cost
Cost No. of Web resources %
Payable web resources 12 5
Free Web resources 237 95
Total 249 100
0
20
40
60
80
10098
27
5 22
6
Fre
qu
ency
of
med
ia c
on
ten
t
Media content
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The table 2 shows that web resources of Educational Research Methodology on internet
are available cost free and payable. It is analyzed that out of 248 identified web resources sites
237 web resources sites are available free of cost on internet and 12 web resources sites are
payable. The e–content on one of the web link is available in both modes and it is counted in
both categories separately that why the total identified web sites are 249.
It can be concluded that most of the web resources of Educational Research Methodology
are non payable they can be accessed freely by stake holders and they can do their research cost
effectively.
While very few resources are available on cost but they can be accessed after paying
some amount. But it is found that they are not equally available on the basis of cost of web
pages. So, it can be said that the hypothesis 2.4 is partially accepted.
Discussion of Results and Implications of the Study
From the result of the present study it is found that sufficient numbers of web resources
of Educational Research Methodology are available on internet as Jaya (2010) retrieved 363
websites of mathematics with the help of search engines.
It is found that we can classify the web resources of Educational Research Methodology
on the basis of its type of web page format, usages, media and cost as Geeta (2013) found
sufficient study material for Biology on internet for different branches of biology, languages,
utility, multimedia and its cost.
The researcher found that web resources of Educational Research Methodology are not
equally available on the basis of usages as Darren R. Hargrave, Ursula A. Hargrave, and Eric
Bouffet (2006) concluded in their medical research that Web sites were found deficient in topics
covering etiology, late effects, prognosis, and treatment choices.
It is also found that most of the web resources of Educational Research Methodology are
non payable they can be accessed freely by stake holders.
Further it can be concluded that such richness of the web resources of Educational
Research Methodology on internet can provide tremendous opportunities to the students and
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educators to develop very interesting courseware. As Kristen, Rainie, Heap, Alan, Buchanan,
Judy (2011) also interpreted that student can take advantage of the availability of educational
material in engaging multimedia formats, and many become more self reliant researchers.
Implications
As per the research presented here, the following Educational implications can be seen-
With the help of identified web resources in various types and forms i.e.video, graphic,
pictures, animation and text, the difficult concept of Educational Research Methodology
can be made easy for teacher educators and research supervisors, they can teach Research
Methodology effectively and interestingly and guide & supervise the M.Ed. students and
research scholars competently.
Students can be motivated for self study; they can carry out their dissertation and research
work in a smooth and efficient manner with the help of available web resources of
Educational Research Methodology.
It is recommended that administrators of educational institute should provide better ICT
facilities for the enhancement of research activity.
Training to the stakeholders should be given for the better use of web resources in their
institutes since an adequate number of resources are available on internet.
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that lots of web resources are available on internet for
Educational Research Methodology and they are available in various types and forms. Hence, to
utilize the web resources to its maximum the internet facility should be made available in
Schools of Education premises and awareness about web resources should be created through
training programme, seminars, workshops, guest lecture so that users can be encouraged to use
web resources, they can overcome the difficulties faced by them in the use of information and
doing research.
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Appendix 1
Check List to Evaluate the Features of Web Resources
S.N. Check points Sub-check points Response
1 Search Engine
1. Google
2. Alta vista
3. MSN
4. Bing
5. Hot bot
Yes/no
Yes/no
Yes/no
Yes/no
Yes/no
2 Type of web
page
1. HTML
2. PDF
3. MP3
4. PPT
5. Doc
6. Others
Yes/no
Yes/no
Yes/no
Yes/no
Yes/no
Yes/no
3 Media
1. Text
2. Picture
3. Animation
4. Graphic
5. Video
Yes/no
Yes/no
Yes/no
Yes/no
Yes/no
4 Usage
1. Theoretical
orientation
2. Data Analysis
3. Report writing
Yes/no
Yes/no
Yes/no
5 cost 1. Payable
2. Cost free
Yes/no
Yes/no