Research Proposal

Anuj Apte
Intern Mentor Research
2016-2017

Title: Can Centralized Databases Issues for Schools?

Overview of Research:
The area of research for this project is to find whether centralized databases make
processes more efficient and how can they be improved upon. The research will be specifically
considering school system processes such as Google databases tailored for school usage like
Canvas and Synergy. Many articles, videos, and books will be analyzed to gain much more
general and specific information on centralized databases such as their tools offered and specific
issues or problems. When enough research is completed, a series of interviews will be conducted
with professionals in the education and Information Technology/Database field. This way the
researcher will be able to make an examination and hopefully conclude on whether centralized
databases make school processes more efficient.

Background and Rationale:

Humans have been using databases since the ancient times and even though the databases were
not computerized, they were extremely organized. Many civilizations developed elaborate
database systems to organize government, libraries, hospitals, and businesses. For example, the
Greeks and Romans built many libraries to contain scrolls and information for common people to
obtain. However, computerized databases did not emerge until the 1960s. During the 1960s many
companies started using the computerized databases because they seemed to be the most cost
effective. One of the most important and useful databases was called SABRE. The database was
created by Intel to help American Airlines manage their reservations system. After the 1960sdatabase technology took off. Every decade there seemed to be a drastic change in the
technology available. The biggest jump came in the 1990s due to the explosion of the internet.
Once the internet, computers, and laptops were shown to the public centralized databases became
vital since there was so much more data flowing that needed to be stored somewhere.

Research Methodology:
Research Question:
Do centralized databases make school processes more efficient and if so why and what
are their current problems?

Hypothesis:
Centralized databases will make schools more organized as long as the databases are
strategically developed.
The ultimate goal of this experiment will be to educate students and spread the
researchers new finding as much as possible. Spreading the new information will draw attention
of the Information Technology and database experts who design school databases so that they
can potentially improve upon their creations. The researcher has begun to collect data in the
forms of interviews and article analysis.
Research Model:
The experiment will be an evaluation research design because the researcher is exploring
the value and issues of centralized databases. The research also uses quantitative and qualitative
research. The research will be qualitative and quantitative because some of the data will be
statistics about centralized database use and its effects on school processes while the other data
might be a teachers description on how he or she felt after new systems were implemented. The
independent variable for this experiment are the centralized databases and the dependent variable
will be the problems and efficiency of the databases.
Data Collection:
The data collection method for this experiment will be interviews. The researcher chose
this type of data collection because the type of data given to the researcher will be coming from
first hand sources in the education and database field. The data and information from the
professionals will be extremely reliable and quality information. The researcher will interview
five different people in the education and database field and ask them questions that will
eventually help the project. The information gathered from the interviews will be extremely
helpful for research since it is information form very recent and upcoming professionals.

Project Objectives:
The product of the yearlong study will be a website. A website was chosen as the final
product because these days basically everyone has access to the Internet so it would be easy for
many people to see all the information and findings collected.
The targeted audience for this project and product are high school teacher and school
database developers. The reason this project is tailored towards high school teachers is because
they are a group of people that uses the school databases the most often so giving them
information on how the databases have improved their processes and how it could improve might
help them convey to the county what they would like to see in their databases. This research will
also be tailored towards database developers because it can show them what they need to
improve in their databases to make them run more efficiently.
The researcher will make a presentation using the website created. While the presentation
is being conducted, the researcher will pass out a survey that will ask the students what they

learned and what can be improved about the presentation. The researcher will also ask the
students to share the website with their friends and families to popularize the website.

Logistical Considerations:
A few human resources will be needed for this project. This project will also need five
other human sources to interview for data collection. There are very few special conditions for
this experiment. The only thing the researcher will need to get is a gadget that will clearly record
the interview such as a smart phone.

Approval:
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___________________________

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Student Signature

G/T Resource Teacher Signature

Mentor Signature