8210 Dis. Wk8

2

Week 8 Dis Assignment Task Part 2

Respond to at least one of your colleagues’ posts in 125 words and comment on the following:

1. Make recommendations for the design choice.

2. Explain whether you think that this is the appropriate correlation or bivariate regression to use for the research question. Why or why not?

3. As a lay reader, were you able to understand the results and their implications? Why or why not?

Colleague Response

Brenda Miller

Top of Form

Correlation and Bivariate Regression

 

The article “Supporting Student Success in the First-Year Experience: Library Instruction in the Learning Management System” by Marineo and Shi (2018) uses a quantitative design along with a variety of analytic approaches to address the different research questions. This study had 374 participants (n) with 98% being college freshmen, 72% female and 28% male. The Pearson Correlation was used to answer research question 3, “Are there significant relationships among research assignment grade, library use sessions, and semester GPA, one-year retention, and academic standing?” (Marineo & Shi, 2018, p. 46). The author chose the Pearson Correlation method to examine the relationships between library use sessions, research assignment grades, and semester GPA. In addition, hierarchial regression was used instead of bivariate regression to assess “whether the library-related variables explain a statistically significant amount of variance in semester GPA after accounting for student variables” (Marineo & Shi, 2018, p. 46). This is the most appropriate choice, since the Pearson’s correlation coefficient’s “r is a measure of relationship or association for interval-ratio variables” (Frankfort-Nachmais et al., 2021, p. 421).  In addition, Skill Builder 16: Interpreting Correlation and Regression Coefficients states the Pearson Correlation “Allows researchers to examine how one variable changes as another variable changes” (Skill Builder, n.d.). In this case, research question 3 is identifying the relationship between academic standing and the research assignment grade, library session, GPA, and one-year retention. In other words, the relationship between academic standing and how it is positively influenced by the amount of library sessions utilized by the student.

 

 

Data Display

            The author displays data through Tables 1 through 7. Depending on which format a person is viewing the study, determines how the information is presented. In PDF form the tables are found within the paper; however, when the study is not downloaded the reader must click on the “Display Table” tab or the information can be easily overlooked.

 

Results

The result for this study stand alone and show a positive correlation between student academic success and library use. Since this study included mainly female students, it would be interesting to see the results with a more balanced male and female representation.

 

Effect Size

 

Bottom of Form

The effect size was reported by the author as being a “small effect size” for data presented in Table 2 showing the differences in research assignment grade by instruction delivery type F(2, 292) = 0.21, p > 0.05, η2 = .001 and a second “small effect size” for Semester GPA, F(2, 372) = 0.76, p > 0.05, η2 = .004. For Table 3 a “small effect size was also shown for one year retention and good academic standing by library module completion status” (Marineo & Shi, 2018, p. 47). These results are meaningful, because they show that the use of the library helped increase academic performance.

 

 

Resources

Frankfort-Nachmias, C., Leon-Guerrero, A., & Davis, G. (2021). Social statistics for a diverse society (9th ed.). Sage.

Marino, F., & Shi Q. (2018). Supporting student success in the first-year experience: Library instruction in the learning management system. Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning, 13(1-2), 40-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/1533290X.2018.1499235

Skill Builder. (n.d.). Skill Builder 16: “Interpreting correlation and regression coefficients.”