Research Methods Poster Presentation – Help sheet

Critically analyse complex and conflicting theories, concepts and principles relevant to tourism and aviation industries. – You need to select a range of theories and types of research methods – so choose a selection of these (positivist, phenomenologist) you must also include Qualitative and Quantitative research methods as part of your critical analysis and give the advantages and disadvantages for each.
You need to then critically analyse the use of different research methods you may use in your project – i.e. Questionnaires, Focus groups, 1:1 interviews and then you can again highlight which may be most suitable.
For the first two sections you must do this as a literature review using quotes, authors and different sources.
Valid, reliable and ethical – you need to have a section on your poster that discusses the importance of these and how to apply these to ensure the research is valid, reliable and ethical – include some quotes where necessary too.
Explain the ethos of what methods may be most suitable with valid reasons.
Results section – state why it is important to analyse the results of the research, and why it is important to end with a conclusion.
Your poster must be:

• Eye catching
• Professionally presented
• Contain, relevant images, quotes, some text but this will be supported by what you are saying alongside when you present your poster.
• You must have cue cards, you can also submit any supporting documents if you feel this is necessary.

This is a webpage with some guidance on how to actually produce a university standard poster presentation.
http://www.supi.manchester.ac.uk/media/services/supi/Academic-Poster-Guidance.pdf
Main topics to cover:
Introduction – what research is, meaning of research
Primary research and secondary research
Main types of research – pure research, applied research
Research styles: survey method, experimental method, ethnographic research
Research traditions: positivist, phenomenologist
Validity, reliability
Quantitative research – advantages and disadvantages
Quantitative methods: questionnaires: closed end questions, open ended questions or a combination (points to consider if you use questionnaires to collect data)
Qualitative research – advantages disadvantages
Qualitative methods: interviews: unstructured, semi-structured and structured, focus groups (points to consider for using interviews or focus groups)
Analysing data – quantitative data (covert data into information to look for categories/codes/statistics/patterns/trends)
Analysing data – qualitative data (refine ides, look for reasons/causes, create segments supported by data, use comparison to identify themes and issues, similarities and differences, draw conclusions) – importance of analysis and drawing conclusions and communicating results.
Importance of a conclusion.
Importance of a literature review, sources of information and the value of a bibliography/references.
Ethical considerations within research methods and the importance of ethical research