THE OPINIONS OF STUDENTS PROJECT PROPOSAL

Establishing an Ohio Benefit Bank at Kent State University: The Opinions of Students Project Proposal Adam Brokaw & Markeith Grays Kent State University

THE OPINIONS OF STUDENTS PROJECT PROPOSAL

Rationale and Purpose: Our objective in this project is to determine the opinions of Kent State University students regarding the Ohio Benefit Bank and the establishment of a tax site on the main campus. We will achieve this by distributing a survey to the student body, which we can then analyze and use to compose a summative report on our findings. The main purpose behind studying students opinions is to gain an understanding of if they will actually be interested in using the site and how the OBB could potentially attract additional students, who may not normally be inclined to utilize its services. Our topic is important because it can greatly help the Ohio Benefit Bank make a positive difference in the Kent State community. The information we provide can improve their marketing as they better understand who their audience is and what would attract it to their organization. The OBB can also use our research to improve how it runs its day-to-day services, knowing, for example, what students expect from the volunteers who work there, what types of services they would prefer over others, and what hours would most guarantee that the use the site. This research will not only be beneficial to OBB and its potential patrons however; it will also contribute to the larger goals of this class. The course objectives to Explore various technologies . . . used for communicating, collaborating and designing texts and Interact online with peers in order to give and receive constructive feedback . . . and use [it] to revise texts, for example, will be fulfilled in our use of programs like Microsoft Word and online survey creators (such as Survey Monkey or Student Voice) and as we correspond and collaborate on our project over Blackboard Vista. We will also use scholarship for personal research as we examine last years College Writing II reports to assemble our own. Ultimately, as we distribute our surveys to the students and provide a comprehensive analysis of our findings for the OBB, we will Engage in researching and composing . . . texts appropriate for specific audiences and Collaboratively compose text for a community outside the classroom in a meaningful servicelearning experience. Description of Topic: The groundwork for this project has been fairly well laid out for us by the College Writing II students. They thoroughly explained how to go about creating a survey and what to consider during the process. Two very important terms they discussed regarding research and surveys are validity and reliability. Validity relates to if the research actually accomplishes what it sets out to do. This comes into play in the way we design our survey. It must be neutral and not sway the participants in either direction. In order to also ensure that they will complete the survey entirely and fully understand the material, it is also best to make the questions simple and short. In addition to this, we should think carefully about how we distribute the survey to the student body. The sample we survey must accurately reflect the population it is meant to represent. If we want to get a full representation of all Kent State students, we cannot only survey one group in one class; we cannot only make the survey available to those who have Internet access. We must make it possible for nearly every kind of student of every kind of background to participate in our research. Reliability, on the other hand, has to do with whether or not our survey would yield the same results if it were taken again by the same sample in the near future. This is also tied to the simplicity and readability of our surveythat our questions, no matter how many times a person reads them, would convey the same messages.

THE OPINIONS OF STUDENTS PROJECT PROPOSAL

Final Project and Plan: Our final project will be a report detailing the opinions of Kent State University students regarding the establishment of an Ohio Benefit Bank tax site on campus as determined by our survey. If we do our research well and ensure that our findings are as accurate as possible, this project will definitely help the OBB pilots operation. The first step for us is to determine what questions we feel we should include in the survey, taking our target audience and the goals of the OBB into consideration. We will brainstorm and hone down our ideas until we come up with the most concise document possible. We will include questions about their demographics and how they react to what the OBB offers. We will ask not only yes-or-no questions, but also give them the opportunity to rate and scale different ideas and concepts, creating more precise feedback. Our survey should probably take no more than five to ten minutes to complete to keep participants from becoming bored and answering questions poorly. From there, we will test our survey on a few individuals around campus. We will go to a variety of locations, such as the Student Center, dining halls, academic buildings, and around residence halls. We will try to make the ages, majors, backgrounds, etc. of the sample as diverse as possible. They can then provide feedback, helping us improve the survey with fair and balanced input before we give the survey to the masses. Once we prepare the final draft of it, we will then distribute it, in hard-copy form to classes, through an online survey creator, or both. Once we gather our results, we will then analyze them and turn them into helpful, applicable information for the OBB in a comprehensive but succinct document, which will include charts, graphs, and our own recommendations as researchers.