Excel in Action Research.
Earlier in the year I performed action research on two year 9 and one year 10 classes as to the effectiveness of 'Google apps for education'. As part of this process I use google forms to do a pre-quiz and post-quiz on the students which puts each of their responses into a google sheet. I then ran a script called 'flubaroo' which grades the assignments based upon the responses in the document. All of this data was then downloaded into an excel spreadsheet where detailed analysis and graphing could be done.
Information, including a video, an outline with screenshots, and original files, can be found in the 'Excel in Action Research' section of this site in the subsection of 'Using Graphs' OR by clicking the button below.
Information, including a video, an outline with screenshots, and original files, can be found in the 'Excel in Action Research' section of this site in the subsection of 'Using Graphs' OR by clicking the button below.
Also in 'Excel in Action Research' is s subsection called 'analysis of previous results' which outlines how the data from the previous 18 months of the two year 9 classes studied were sorted and then compared. Access to this can also be made by clicking the button below.
Relevance and use in action research.
The relevance on my use of excel in action research is that it made the process manageable and the analysis of data much deeper. The use of past students results in deciding which class used 'google apps' and which class used 'Microsoft Office' in the comparison would have been much more difficult and time consuming without the use of excel. Also the workflow and analysis of the 'Google Sheets' pre-quiz and post-quiz was made much more efficient and effective through excel. The volume of data gathered and analysed would have been prohibitive without this technology. Last, but most certainly not least, the use of graphing (including pivot charts and graphs) to compare the classes pre-quiz and post-quiz results within and between each other would not have been possible without the use of excel. In particular the use of frequency distribution graphs were used as part of a comprehensive comparison upon which the conclusion to the investigation depended. As such, any future action research project I undertake or supervise will include the use of excel.
