Progress report on the research project

As you are halfway through your project, prepare an oral presentation to report on it. Each team will have to account for the following aspects:

-Name of team members         

-Project title

-Project outline and structure

-Introduction

-Methodology

-Questionnaire and survey results

In addition, comment on the following questions:

-What were the objectives of your project? Have they changed since you started?

-Are you happy with your work timing? How have you organised your work?

-What have you done so far?

-What is happening at the moment?

-What problems have there been? Have you solved them? How?

-What hasn’t been done yet?

-What is the next step?

-How is your teamwork progressing?

-Are you satisfied with each member’s contributions?

-Are you receiving enough guidance from your teacher?

-What are the positive aspects of having to do this project? And the negative ones?

Back to work!

The most curious Christmas videos

This year hotels have resorted again to videos to wish a merry Christmas to customers, suppliers, partners and media with very different approaches. Here is a selection, including fun examples with the participation of employees, focusing on the Corporate Social Responsibility strategy, or simply thanking their clients for their loyalty and wishing them a happy 2017.

http://www.hosteltur.com/119665_videos-navidenos-curiosos-hoteles-cadenas.html?fromNewsletter=com&fromNewsletterDate=2016-12-27

Watch them and choose the one you prefer. Write a post stating which is your favourite and why. Also mention the one you dislike the most and the reasons for your choice. Think about the corporate values underlying those two videos, what were the aims and if you consider that those objectives have been achieved, and also try to make improvement suggestions.

All I want for Xmas...

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Y66XGykVY_eFc3eUU5S3NoWjQ/view?ts=585bcb5a

Research project

Let's get started

The research project is a key task in level 3. Read the following guidelines to find out more about it and suggest possible topics you could work on.

§  Introduction: The purpose of this section is to provide an overview of the project. The subject of study, the context in which it was carried out, the objectives and the research questions must be clearly formulated.

§  Theoretical framework: The conceptual framework can include a literature review on the topic studied. The theoretical and/or practical background of the topic and previous investigations should be identified, along with related theories and key concepts.

§  Research design: The methodological approach must be described, as well as the research instruments used, how data were collected, and how processing and analysis were planned.

§  Results: The results obtained by means of the data collection instruments must be presented graphically.

§  Conclusions: In this final section the initial research questions must be answered. Moreover, this section must show to which degree the set objectives have been achieved, and the whole project must be evaluated. The limitations of the study and unresolved issues must also be stated. Lastly, possible future research lines must be proposed.

§  References: The bibliography used to develop the project may be mentioned.

Be creative and post your topic proposals!

Visit from Haaga-Helia University

Yesterday a group of Tourism students from Haaga-Helia University (Finland) joined us. We had a very fruitful session!

Welcome to Level 3

In this level, questionnaires are essential data collection tools for your research projects. Here you are some questionnaire design guidelines (adapted from Research basis and provided by Prof. G. Garcia).

After reading these guidelines, think of two valid questions for your survey and post them.

1.    There are several types of questionnaires:

Focus on the questions:

•    Open. Example: Which hotel would you like to work for?
•    Closed:
•     Dichotomous. Example: Have you ever been to Greece?  1. Yes 2. No
•    Multiple. Example: Which accommodation did you use in your last stay abroad?

1.    Hotel

2.    Apartment

3.    Campsite

4.    Other

•  :Mixed: A combination of multiple and open questions

Focus on the responses:

•    Spontaneous. Example: Which is your favourite restaurant in Barcelona?
•    Suggested options. Example: To which degree do you consider online hotel booking is reliable?

1.    Not reliable at all

2.    Little reliable

3.    Quite reliable

4.    Totally reliable

2. When formulating questions remember they should:

§   Not involve calculations
§   Not be sensitive/emotional
§   Not imply a specific response
§   Not be double, but single
§   Not be ambiguous
§   Not be a negative sentence
§   Be expressed in a simple way
§   Incorporate instructions on how to answer them

3. When  it comes to measuring the results, two key concepts are:

§   Validity: A valid measuring scale measures what is really supposed to be measured

§   Reliability: A reliable scale is precise

4. There is a wide range of measure scales: 

•    Metric. Example: What is your degree of satisfaction with the hotel from 0 to 10?    
•      Interval. Example: Which temperature do you consider ideal for a holiday destination?

1.    Less than 20 degrees Celsius

2.    Between 20 and 24 degrees Celsius

3.    Between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius

4.    More than 30 degrees Celsius

•    Ordinal. Example: What was the category of the last hotel you stayed at?

1.    5* 

2.    4*

3.    3*

4.    2*

5.    1*

•    Nominal. Example: What type of transport did you use to travel to your last holiday destination?

1.    Plane

2.    Boat

3.    Coach

4.    Train

5.    Own car

•    Comparative

§  COMPARING PAIRS. Example: Which of these two destinations ( X/Y ) do you prefer for your summer holidays?

§  CLASSIFYING. Example: Order the following destinations according to your preferences for your next summer holidays

§  ADDING. Example: Which importance do you give to the following aspects when choosing a holiday destination?

Price       __ __ %

Climate   __ __ %

Safety    __ __ %

Total           100%

§  SIMILARITY. Example: Indicate if the following ingredients are sweet, salty, sour or bitter

•    Not comparative

§  GRADING. Example: In your opinion tourism is

Very negative 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 Very positive

§  LIKERT. Example: Tourists in Barcelona are respectful with the local culture

1.    I totally disagree

2.    I disagree

3.    I neither agree nor disagree

4.    I agree

5.    I fully agree

§  SEMANTIC. Example: In your opinion Barcelona is
                

Modern - - - - Traditional

Cheap - - - - Expensive

Sustainable  - - - - Unsustainable

Post your research questions and objectives

Having chosen an appropriate topic for your research, list all the questions that you'd like answered yourself and select the best ones. Once you determine what you know about the topic, you can do some preliminary general literature review to develop usable research questions.

Evaluate the quality of your research questions and the ease with which you should be able to answer them. Ask yourself:

1. Does the question deal with a topic which interests me enough to spark my own thoughts and opinions?
2. Is the question easily and fully researchable?
3. What type of information do I need to answer the research question? For example, to answer the research question "What impact has deregulation had on commercial airline safety?" will require certain types of information:
 Statistics on airline crashes before and after.
 Statistics on other safety problems before and after.
 Information about maintenance practices before and after.
 Information about government safety requirements before and after.
4. Is the scope of this information reasonable (e.g., can I really research a vast amount of projects developed over a span of 10 years?)
5. Given the type and scope of the information that I need, is my question too broad, too narrow or okay? The number of sources you find may help you discover this.
6. What sources will be able to provide the information I need to answer my research question (journals, books, Internet, government documents, people)?
7. Can I access these sources?
8. Given my answers to the above questions, do I have a good-quality research question that I actually will be able to answer by doing research?

Objectives must be set in relation to research questions, since they must refer to the way in which such questions are going to be answered. Objectives provide an accurate description of the specific actions you will take in order to reach your research aim. A general objective can be broken down into specific objectives, and the more precisely you formulate your specific objectives, the simpler it will be to define the type of study and which method(s) you will use in your further research.

Objectives consist of one single infinitive sentence and should be phrased in a way that makes it possible to draw a conclusion from within the scope of your project. They are usually headed by infinitive verbs such as: analyse, assess, collect, compare, describe, determine, develop, establish, evaluate, estimate, identify, etc.

Finally, a hypothesis is not a question, but rather it is a statement about the relationship between two or more variables. The hypothesis translates the research question into a prediction of expected outcomes and to be complete a hypothesis must include three components: the variables, the population and the relationship between the variables.

Adapted from: http://www.esc.edu/online-writing-center/exercise-room/evaluate-your-own-research-question/