Dissertation plan - Computing research methodologies

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Computing Research Methodologies

genuine results. However this would mean testing the different tasks across the different software and may become more complicated as a study. The fourth part is to observe the students whilst they carry out the task and explore by using a questionnaire on the students experience of the software and their approach, and whether they reached a successful end result. The fifth and last point is to evaluate and analyse all the data collected. The patterns observed can help to distinguish regularities in techniques or approach. The variables can be discussed including the technical abilities of the software as well as the users past experiences. The possible risks involved in this study are firstly ethics and approval; it is needed to protect the rights of the participants of the study and overall requires care during the study in order to minimise any errors. [Resnik, D. 2011] Another risk is that to get enough participants for the study may be difficult, as it requires them to carry out a task and to do a questionnaire it is a commitment which will take some time and many students may not want to make it. This could be overcome by setting smaller, quicker tasks and for the feedback questionnaires to be simple or short and easy to fill out – this is something which may need contingency planning. Also an accurate measurement of the project, time management needed and whether the time available is enough for what needs to be done can be an issue.

Outline design Through using files with changes made to them it can be seen whether the students are able to reach a successful result as the original file will be used to compare to. This will stay the same whether the student is different, or software is different. It is also possible to create different levels of difficulty in the tasks using files with different changes or harder to detect changes, this will show whether the students deploy different techniques in trying to find the changes. Using different software is key to the study as it shows whether the same results are achievable through a different means, and if not then what is affecting the result – is it the software itself or is it the student using it? This assumes that the task is achievable and if it isn’t then it would be expected that the same result still shows on the different software. Through observation of the students carrying out tasks it can be seen whether they find the tasks easy or difficult, and whether the find use of the software easy or difficult, and referring back to the approaches in usability mentioned earlier it can be seen how long it takes the student to complete the task through discovery, learning and efficiency approaches. The results of each student can be compared to each other to then find patterns not only individually, this will show whether they have similar discovery and learning methods, if the change in software or task affected each student differently or not. Once the tasks and observations have been completed, to help evaluate the student’s performance a questionnaire can be set on: how the students found the task, whether it was difficult, what they thought of the software, how they used it and if they were able to detect the file changes. The questionnaire will be a good way to find out the students’ opinions and how they felt about the task and software, this can then be compared to the actual results and observations made in order to see if they correlate and therefore back up any findings.

Time Table Fig. 1: Gantt chart to show time management for project

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Computing Research Methodologies

Above is a gantt chart to show an estimate of the time management needed in completing the project and its various components. Two weeks have been given to the project proposal approval as it may need to be changed and would take some time to go over. Research and literature reviews are expected to take possibly a month in order to gain a good perspective. Task generation may take some time as I would expect to review my options with a forensic computing lecturer or technician in order to see which tasks would be possible and how to conduct a task which would test the students’ techniques. After this the questionnaire can be created, relating to the tasks and the software. Participants would need to be chosen and any ethics forms and participation approval would need to be done. The experiment can then be carried out; this could take approximately two weeks however this process can be carried out as participants are selected. Recovering results and carrying out an analysis may take three weeks, and an analysis may take another two weeks using the research to refer to in helping to reach conclusions. Once the main components have been completed the draft write up can be finalised and checked through, then finalised towards the deadline. It would be expected that supervisor feedback would be available throughout the project and that each component would have some sort of overlap. In the appendix the original idea with feedback is attached.

References Antony, H. (2013). Human-Computer Interaction: An Analysis.Available: http://txcdk- v15.unt.edu/SLIS5223-2/handle/123456789/160. Last accessed 12/05/13. Archibald, J. Ferguson, R. Hales, G. (2013). On the use of data visualization techniques to support digital forensic analysis: A survey of current approaches . University of Abertay. Available: http://www.gavinhales.co.uk/research/cyberforpaper.pdf.

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Computing Research Methodologies

Buchanan-Wollaston, J., Storer, T., and Glisson, W. (2012) A comparison of forensic toolkits and mass market data recovery applications. In: Ninth Annual IFIP WG 11.9 International Conference on Digital Forensics, 28-30 Jan 2013, National Center for Forensic Science Orlando, FL, USA. Cranor, L. Hibshi, H. Vidas, T. (2011). Usability of Forensics Tools: A User Study. Available: http://www.kau.edu.sa/Files/611/Researches/60469_31299.pdf. Last accessed 12/05/13. Crossman, A. (2013). Deductive Reasoning Versus Inductive Reasoning. Available: http://sociology.about.com/od/Research/a/Deductive-Reasoning-Versus-Inductive-Reasoning.htm. Last accessed 12/05/13. Elbasir, M. Elgamel, L. Sarrab, M. (2013). The Technical, Non-technical Issues and the Challenges of Migration to Free and Open Source Software . International Journal of Computer Science Issues. 10 (Issue 2). Available: http://ijcsi.org/papers/IJCSI-10-2-3-464-469.pdf Microsoft Corporation. (2000). Usability in Software Design. Available: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms997577.aspx. Last accessed 12/05/13. Nightingale, W.. (2012). Positivist Approach to Research. Available: http://www.wider- mind.com/research/wdn-positivism-v2.pdf. Last accessed 12/05/13. Resnik, D. (2011). What is Ethics in Research & Why is it Important? Available: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/. Last accessed 12/05/13.

CRM_Example_70_GameRecording.pdf