National Sports Day Events at CNA-Q: Turn Out Rates Report

Introduction

This report presents research findings and results undertaken to find out reasons behind small turn out of students and teachers in the National Sports Day events at the college, CNA-Q. Since introduction of the sports and events in the school, very few people use the sporting facilities.

This report unveils the research strategies to be undertaken, the primary research method to be chosen, sample selection, data analysis to be performed, and a summary of the whole research in identifying the factors behind the problematic low turnout of students and in sports.

As such, the main idea of the report is to present the results containing reasons of the low turnout in sporting activities and events in CAN-Q College, and provide recommendation on how to fix this problem. This report sheds lights of the exploratory research that will be undertaken, as it is fundamental in understanding students and staff tastes and preferences for in sports day (National Sports Day (2012)

CNA-Q is one of the oldest colleges in Qatar providing higher education to the local residents since 2002. The college has over 650 staff as well as around 4600 students. The college also has excellent sports facilities ranging from fully equipped male and female gyms, to basketball, tennis and football courts.

There are also two male and female swimming pools located in each gym with around the clock life guards as well has shower and locker room facilities maintained in top condition. The students and staff are encouraged to use these facilities to balance work and exercise and stay fit and fresh to perform their roles even better (National Sports Day 2012). Nevertheless, students and staff do not use the sporting activities as expected and majority rarely attend the National Sports Day events at the college.

This came as a big problem to the researcher since the a good amount of promotion done through email, flyers and posters and even through word of mouth among the students at the college campus. In addition, the service is free of charge to all the students and staff as well as the alumni of CNA-Q. The management has many questions on the underutilization of sports facilities against their expectation to recap the investment.

Primary Research Method Chosen

The research question seeks to find out the information about the opinions and perceptions of students with regard to low turnout of people in sporting events. By undertaking an exploratory research, it will provide sufficient information as per the knowledge of the researcher to enable one to comprehend this problem. As such, I settled to doing a mix of mix of primary and secondary research (Survey research n.d.).

The primary research will consist of information gathered from students directly by undertaken a survey and using a questionnaire (Kolb, 2009). Surveys are important, as I will be able to tabulate, categorize, and analyze content of the responses because the same questions will be answered by every respondent.

The staff members of the faculty at CNAQ will offer their opinions and events through conducting an interview with them. In order to gather relevant information I will categorize the primary information from students into demographic, psychographic, usage and miscellaneous as based in the questionnaire (Creative Research Systems, n.d.).

The questionnaire will be used as a fundamental tool to get information about the research problem. As an important quantitative survey research tool, questionnaires are significant to testing and guessing hypothesis about particular behaviors of students and teachers.

The questionnaire will therefore provide information based on age, gender, the willingness participation in the events and preferences of activities on the sports day. In addition, the questionnaire will investigate the willingness of students to join sporting events and any reasons to dissuade them from participating such as health.

The demographic information puts the students in groups based on their age, gender as well as the major of Study or Program (MaCorr Inc, 2009). This will enable the researcher to classify and identify the characteristics of these students. Subsequently, be able to deduce the relationship between their career path and age and gender. As such, this information will make it possible for me to have a general idea about the demographic profile of a group and their sporting activities eventually.

Information about the main customers of the service at CNAQ on National Sports Day, their structure and participation will be revealed in the demographic profile as provided through the questionnaires. This will help me, the researcher, suggest the best way to properly promote this event in the college and effectively implement it.

The research will be undertaken in a period of one month consisting of a mix of an extensive and intensive literature review of secondary information as well as survey to seek primary information through conducting interviews and giving questionnaires to teachers and students respectively. The Gantt chart will be an effective tool in undertaking all the activities of the exploratory research in an organized way.

This will involve first going through the research problem again to discover the basic requirements and get an overview of how the task will be undertaken. Again, consultation with the lecturer and reviewing the lecture notes will offer input of for the task. Going through sample of work will enable me to get the best structure for brief notes and later references as well as the final report (Qatar Olympic Committee, 2011).

Gantt chart is a tool used in project planning and analysis. Its outlines the sequence of activities required to complete a project giving the required duration (MaCorr Inc, 2009). It shows which activities may be critical for the project to be accomplished. There are activities that have to be performed before others in the list can commence.

For instance, one cannot start writing this report without reading through the case study given. The resource allocation in term of time, people and materials are outlined. This helps in budgeting and planning of a project. This will also involve drawing a context diagram, data flow diagram, flow of processes and data structure of the chart.

Sample Selection

CNA-Q is one of the oldest colleges in Qatar providing higher education to the local residents since 2002. The college has over 650 staff as well as around 4600 students. The college also has excellent sports facilities ranging from fully equipped male and female gyms, to basketball, tennis and football courts.

There are also two male and female swimming pools located in each gym with around the clock life guards as well has shower and locker room facilities maintained in top condition (Qatar Olympic Committee, 2011). The sample will consist of students categorized into male and female, the same will apply to teachers.

Finding out the sample size comes as the best representation of the population, and it is a key in an exploratory research. In about one month, I will choose a sample size of 600 students who I choose randomly. Bearing the fact that I have only one month to undertake the research and considering the study as part of the course unit, I it might be difficult to collect information from such a large sample size within a short time.

As such, I settled on a limit of the simple size of 50. I will distribute the questionnaires among the students in accordance to age, gender and program. This will facilitate collection information that is not skewed.

From a general point, this research takes allocation of units into probability sampling procedure that include stratified sampling, cluster sampling, systematic sampling as well as simple random sampling.

Probability sampling considers the population of students will be chosen equally and allow time to be allocated properly. The sampling method is convenient to many CAN-Q respondents. Confidence of information provided by respondents will be applied to the latter.

Data Analysis to be performed

The collected information from the questionnaire will form quantitative research data. This information will be entered as numbers and be analyzed statistically. Since the questions in my questionnaire are open-ended, they will be coded in numbers in the forms. As such, the data will be analyzed using SPSS software.

I will measure the central tendencies in cross tabulation since the data will be used to determine the opinion of students and teachers. This will involve calculating the mode, median and mean as well as determining the standard deviation to get the accuracy of the data (Creative Research Systems, n. d.).

Mean. The mean is the average of responses to specific questions answered in the study questionnaire or interviews. It is computed by summing up the responses and diving by the total number of participants denoted as ‘n’. The age mean can be found by adding the participants for every measurement and diving by the n= 600 number of responses.

Median. Median represents the middle value of measurements for each response. This measurement is in ordinal data that is significant in indicating the degree of difference. For instance, when I want to determine the choice of students’ careers by seeking to know the program students have enrolled, the best method is to use the median in the data provided by the participants.

This will offer much information for a few responses. One limitation of the median is the difficulties to apply in the analysis of nominal data since there are two possibilities for response results, which provide two midpoints (Kolb, 2009).

Mode. The mode is the highest frequency of responses for all participants. The mode is applied when determining nominal data that may have two states of being. However, the two states do not have all the similar features. For instance, the gender information can best be described as in terms of the number of female and male.

As such, when the survey of 50 participants is undertaken and 10 are female while 40 are male, the mode is 40. This is because the nature of data would be meaningless when computed for median or mean. Rather, mode is used because it is the most common response.

Cross Tabulation. Cross Tabulation is all about finding relationships in data of the variables used in the study. In this data analysis, I will employ the use of SPSS software. As such, crossing one variable with another is enhanced by using SPSS application, which uses multiple variables simultaneously in cross tabulation.

I will be able to undertake statistical test to find out whether responses from the sample are relevant and application in deducing the conclusions of the inferential statistics. The results will provide the level of interconnection between variables and be useful in hypothesis to come up with reliable conclusions about the research. The pestle factors will be analyzed using SPSS. This will be used to emphasize or disapprove the results found from the sample data analyzed.

Standard Deviation. The standard deviation is significant in pointing out the variance (r²) of By definition, it is the square root of the variance. Once one finds the variance, the standard deviation (r) is found out by getting the square root of r².

The variance is computed by computing the difference between each response of every participant. The results are squared and added to give an absolute sum. The standard deviation is significant in giving the range that most values of the variable fall.

The questionnaire will be used as a fundamental tool to get information about the research problem. As an important quantitative survey research tool, questionnaires are significant to testing and guessing hypothesis about particular behaviors of students and teachers.

The research will be undertaken in a period of one month consisting of a mix of an extensive and intensive literature review of secondary information as well as survey to seek primary information through conducting interviews and giving questionnaires to teachers and students respectively.

The Gantt chart will be an effective tool in undertaking all the activities of the exploratory research in an organized way. The resource allocation in term of time, people and materials are outlined. This helps in budgeting and planning of a project. This will also involve drawing a context diagram, data flow diagram, flow of processes and data structure of the chart. Gantt chart is a tool used in project planning and analysis.

Its outlines the sequence of activities required to complete a project giving the required duration. It shows which activities may be critical for the project to be accomplished. There are activities that have to be performed before others in the list can commence. For instance, one cannot start writing this report without reading through the case study given.

Conclusion

This report presents research findings and results undertaken to find out reasons behind small turn out of students and teachers in the National Sports Day events at the college, CNA-Q. Since introduction of the sports and events in the school, very few people use the sporting facilities.

This report unveils the research strategies to be undertaken, the primary research method to be chosen, sample selection, data analysis to be performed, and a summary of the whole research in identifying the factors behind the problematic low turnout of students and in sports. The main idea of the report is to present the results containing reasons of the low turnout in sporting activities and events in CAN-Q College, and provide recommendation on how to fix this problem.

This report sheds lights on the exploratory research that will be undertaken, as it is fundamental in understanding students and staff taste and preferences for in sports day. CNA-Q is one of the oldest colleges in Qatar providing higher education to the local residents since 2002.

The college has over 650 staff as well as around 4600 students. The college also has excellent sports facilities ranging from fully equipped male and female gyms, to basketball, tennis and football courts. The management has many questions on the underutilization of sports facilities against their expectation to recap the investment.

The research question seeks to find out the information about the opinions and perceptions of students with regard to low turnout of people in sporting events. By undertaking an exploratory research, it will provide sufficient information as per the knowledge of the researcher to enable one in comprehending this problem.

As such, I settled to doing a mix of mix of primary and secondary research. The primary research will consist of information gathered from students directly by undertaken a survey and using a questionnaire. Surveys are important, as I will be able to tabulate, categorize, and analyze content of the responses because the same questions will be asked every respondent.

CNA-Q is one of the oldest colleges in Qatar providing higher education to the local residents since 2002. The college has over 650 staff as well as around 4600 students.

The sample will consist of students categorized into male and female, the same will apply to teachers. With the time of about one month, I will choose a sample size of 600 students who I choose randomly. Bearing the fact that I have only one month to undertake the research and considering the study as part of the course unit, I it might be difficult to collect information from such a large sample size within a short time.

As such, I settled on a limit of the simple size of 50. A quick survey of the students in most classes can determine that the majority are Qatari students. This information can allow the organizers to tailor the national sports day event to their market. Data will be analyzed using SPSS and excel considering the number of students. The pestle factors will be analyzed using SPSS. This will be used to emphasize or disapprove the results found from the sample data analyzed.

I have decided that the best approach for I have decided that the best approach for this problem is to conduct exploratory research in the start and then do some descriptive research, which will allow me to get a better understanding of why the students and staff did not attend the sports day in larger numbers.

My research will be a mix of primary and secondary research. For my primary research, I will contact the students directly, get their opinions through a survey, and conduct interviews with staff members of the faculty at CNAQ (MaCorr Inc, 2009).

Since the questions in my questionnaire are open-ended meaning, they will be coded in numbers in the forms. As such, the data will be analyzed using SPSS software. Since the data will involve the opinion of students and teachers, I will measure the central tendencies in cross tabulation. Other data analysis performed will be to determine the mean, median, mode and standard deviation.

References

Creative Research Systems (2009). Survey Design. Web.

Kolb, B. (2009). Marketing Research: A Practical Approach. New York: SAGE.

MaCorr Inc (2009). Sample Size Calculator. Web.

National Sports Day (2012). Web.

Qatar Olympic Committee (2011). Web.

Appendices

Appendix 1. Questionnaire

The list below contains the questions that will be asked the students of CNA-Q in order to complete this report.

Demographic

1. Indicate your gender
2. Male [ ]
3. Female [ ]
4. Indicate your age group among the following:
5. 15 – 20
6. 21 – 25 [ ]
7. 26 – 30 [ ]
8. 31 – 35 [ ]
9. 36 – 40 [ ]
10. Over 40 [ ]
11. Major of Study/Program…………………………………………………..

Psychographic

1. Would you participate in the event?
2. What do you think college should do in sport day?
3. What is the most sport do you enjoy?

Usage

1. Would you join the sporting event?
2. What do you think the college should offer on sports day?

Miscellaneous

1. Do you have any health problems?
2. Do you prefer staying in bed or participating in the event?
3. Where do you think the sport event should be located?

Appendix 2. Gantt chart

Activities in the Gantt chart that will aid complete the report are as follows:

• Read through the assignment to establish what the assignment requires. This will give a general view and understanding of the work to be covered.
• Read through the provided lecture notes to provide inputs for the assignment. The sample reading will also aid in the structure required for the report. Brief notes are made to provide for later reference.
• Research on available texts on system analysis, project management and quality in processes.
• Study the case to identify the key activities, data stores, processes, organizations and departments involved. This is drafted to give a summary of events and the data input and output.
• Draw a context diagram. This diagram gives details on the relationship between the variables.
• Draw a Level 1 Data flow diagram. This diagram gives an exploded version of the Level 0 DFD. Processes in Level 0 are broken down to more simplified activities.
• Draw a structure chart, which shows a number of DFDs in one structure. A complex process may give winding data flow diagrams that may be hard to comprehend.
• Document the data dictionary showing the data requirements for the study. This aids the study in the data update.

The time schedule for the report is one day. The activities are split in to 24 hours.

Appendix 3: Survey Questions

Part I. In this part, students should define the role of sporting activities and events in their lives.

1. What is you attitude to sports? (use a five point scale to assess the degree of you involvement in sport where 1 equals to “Not at all important” and 5 means “Very Important”):
2. Athletics 1 2 3 4 5
3. Swimming 1 2 3 4 5
4. Tennis 1 2 3 4 5
5. Basketball 1 2 3 4 5
6. Football 1 2 3 4 5
7. Attending gyms 1 2 3 4 5
8. Sport as a hobby 1 2 3 4 5

1. Do you think sport activities constitute an inherent part of college life? (choose the right answer):
2. _____Sporting activities should be as important as a learning process;
3. _____Sport should not interfere with an academic process; it should be a part of spare time;
4. _____Students should not spend much time on sporting activities unless it is their professional calling.
5. What types of sports do you prefer? (Click the right answer)
6. _____Team playing sports;
7. _____Games, such as athletics, or swimming;
8. Do you think sporting activities are as much important as the learning process?
9. ____Yes, it is very important;
10. ____It is possible to balance sports and study;
11. ____No, learning process is more important;
12. What do you know about the National Sporting Events?
13. How often do teachers tell you the information about the National Sporting Events? Have they persuaded you that sporting activities are vital?
14. ____Yes, teachers inform us several weeks before the event for us to prepare;
15. _____ Teachers organize lectures on the importance of participation and how it can influence our college life;
16. _____No, teachers rarely talk about sports and its importance;
17. How much time do you spend on going in for sport?
18. ____Once or twice a week, I go to the gym;
19. ____ I attend the gym as soon as I have free time from a learning process;
20. Do you participate in sporting events?
21. How often do you visit competitions?
22. Are you aware of the available sports facilities in your college? Enumerate them.

Part II. In part II, it is necessary to clarify personal information about students to assess the frequency of attending sporting events by various demographic groups.

1. Name you gender:
2. Male ______
3. Female ______
4. Indicate you family size:
5. ____Nuclear family;
6. ____Extended family;
7. _____Incomplete family;
8. Your variant__
9. Name you hobby and evaluate its importance with regard to its type (indicate its importance where 1 equals to “Not at all important” and 5 means “Very Important”):
10. Related to sport (running, yoga, Pilates, etc.) 1 2 3 4 5;
11. Not related to sport (handmade, drawing etc.) 1 2 3 4 5;
12. Do you take part time job?
13. ___Yes;
14. ___No;
15. Do you like spending time with your friends?
16. Please, evaluate your attitude to participating in the sporting events (for those who attended the sporting events at least once) using a scale where 1 equals to “Strongly Agree” and 4 means “Strongly Disagree”:
17. Attending events is disturbing because of fans 1 2 3 4 (circle the appropriate one);
18. Attending events is exciting 1 2 3 4;
19. What is you major?______________
20. Identify your type of participating in various events:
21. ____Non-Participant;
22. ____Passive Participant;
23. ____Frequent Participant;
24. How much time do you spent on learning?
25. How do you assess the role of sport in general?

Part III. In part III, emphasis will be placed on the degree of information spread about sport events in college.

1. Do you follow sporting events on TV? ___ Yes ___ No
2. What kinds of sports do you follow?
3. Are there any other sporting events than National Sport Day that you attend? Provide reasons.

1. Using scale where 1 equals to “Not at all important” and 5 means “Very Important” to rate the following: what are the major factors influencing your attendance of the sporting events?
2. It give you pleasure 1 2 3 4 5
3. It is exciting and motivating 1 2 3 4 5
4. It helps to release from stress 1 2 3 4 5
5. It allows to meet with friends 1 2 3 4 5
6. Do you use Internet for making inquiring about sporting events?
7. ___Yes, very often;
8. ___ Sometimes, when my friends ask about it;
9. ____No, never;
10. What are the most efficient means of information exchange?
11. ____ e-mailing;
12. _____flyers;
13. _____calling;
14. _____making announcement during the classes;
15. How do you assess your involvement in life of college?
16. ____ very involved;
17. ____involved;
18. ____not involved;
19. What are your future life goals?

1. Are there any reasons for non-attendance of the sporting events?
2. Could you provide your personal understanding of the National Sport Day?

Part 3: Information about the Resources

Kolb, B. (2009). Marketing Research: A Practical Approach. New York: SAGE.

The book provides a comprehensive approach to designing and understanding market research. The author skillfully combines theoretical frameworks and quantitative methodologies in exploring the practical realms. While reviewing the structure and content of the book, specific attention should be paid to the analysis of research process and research questions.

Therefore, the book has been a helpful tool in understanding the steps of accomplishing the research procedures. In particular, the source has been applied in the data collection process to define the sampling, as well as the necessary which needs to be included into the report. Practical dimension of the research is important because it verifies the relevance of the theoretical frameworks chosen for conducting the study.

Aside from theoretical implications, the book can be used as instructional guide for developing efficient critical thinking skills. For instance, the author teaches that a research cannot be started until the source of the problem is defined.

Scientific exploration, therefore, is an ongoing process, which requires close attention to details and aspects influencing the research outcomes. Apart from the procedures and steps introduced in the research, the book also expands on the importance of introducing secondary sources as evidence-based support for the given research.

Therefore, in case the purpose of the research relates to educational spheres, information obtained from governmental and higher education institutions is vital for the study. Finally, the book details important conditions of conducting primary research, including costs, resources, schedule, and budgeting. All these issues are indispensible for accomplishing a well-organized research.

MaCorr Inc (2009). Sample Size Calculator.

Sample size calculator is an important tool in quantitative research because it allows to define the accurate sample that needs to be examined. It is possible to learn more about the main functions of this device on the website. In particular, there is a control panel on the left which allows to choose the type of samples, the rating, scale, the heat map, the slider scale and the virtual shelf.

All these instruments are important for conducting survey or questionnaire. More importantly, the calculator software permits to systematize the data obtained from the empirical research. The research can also introduce his data and explain why a specific sample size has been chosen in case he/she relies on the sample size calculator.

At closer look at the functions of Sample Size Calculator, one can calculate the sample size by defining the confidence level, confidence interval and population.

In order to identify the confidence interval, the calculator proposes to type in the information about sample size, population and percentage. The variables involved into calculation are also explained on the website. The tool has many advantages as compared to the manual approach to calculating the results. First of all, the researchers can be sure that the calculated results are accurate.

Second, the time spent on the calculations is significantly less as compared to the time that could be spent while defining the results manually. Finally, sample size calculator can determine the number of people that should be interviewed. The size should be enough to obtain objective results and reflect the outcomes about target population. The precision of the results depends on the percentage admitted for the research.

Creative Research Systems (2009). Survey Design.

Survey design is an inherent component of the research because it introduces data needed for analysis. It also enhances the main arguments and specifies the overall analysis functions. The data framed within a survey design has an independent sample that is further divided into clusters.

In this respect, the source provides useful information about the main purpose of the survey, its types, and functions. In particular, the survey design seeks to define what people want and expect concerning a specific issue. Conducting surveys and polls can enhance the reliability and objectivity of the research.

Using this source allows to point out the subsequent step of accomplishing the survey. To begin with, a researcher should establish the main objectives of the research project and determine the sample. Second, it is necessary to choose the interviewing methods.

Third, a questionnaire should be created in accordance with the previously established goals. It should be tested before introduced to the chosen sample. Finally, as soon as the survey is conducted, it is necessary to produce the report based on the findings.

Each of the above-presented steps is described in detail for a research to employ those in a consistent way. Apart from the step-by-step instructions, the source explains possible challenges and biases that might arise while conducting a survey. This is of particular concern to irrelevance of the questions, or inadequate methods of interviewing the participants.

Finally, the source introduces different types of surveys, including telephone surveys, mail surveys, or computer surveys. Each type is discussed in terms of advantages and disadvantages. An in-depth evaluation of the survey systems has provided a wider picture of which methods are the most efficient ones for conducting the research under analysis.