Barnes, A F (2024) Maximizing the minimum: The advantages of repeated measures in construction management education research. International Journal of Construction Education and Research, 20(4), pp. 405-420. ISSN 1557-8771
Abstract
Many construction management (CM) courses have low enrollment numbers, making them difficult to study using independent measures research designs. However, repeated measures (RM) research designs, which have historically been underutilized in CM education research, can be used to overcome the deleterious effects of low participation by increasing the number of measurements to achieve sufficient statistical power (i.e. 1-β greater than.80). This paper is the final installment in a research series documenting an RM experiment testing the effectiveness of instructional videos on undergraduate CM students. The emphasis of this paper is on the research method–a within-subject, withdrawal-of-treatment, crossover, RM experimental design–chosen for its ability to increase the statistical power for small sample sizes. The final, actual statistical power of the study was.99. Incongruous with most research testing the pedagogical effectiveness of instructional videos, the study found no statistically significant difference between students who were given instructional videos and the control group. Researchers should consider using RM designs to amplify statistical power in studies with low anticipated participation or to avoid missing clear opportunities to improve the quality and precision of their research findings by increasing the quantity of measurements.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction management education; instructional videos; repeated measures designs; small samples; within-subjects research |
| Index terms: | enrolment, experimental design, sample size, research design, undergraduate, effectiveness, testing, construction management education, experiment |
| Subjects: | professional practice, curriculum development, data collection methods, research design and methodology, recruitment and enrolment, professional education, performance management |
| Topics: | Education, Quality Management, Engineering Principles, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here