Each research plan should include the following: 

1. The research question you are answering (see: Possible research areas) 

2. Your hypothesis 

3.How you are going to test your hypothesis: 

a. The population you're going to study 

b. How you're going to recruit from that population 

c1.. IF YOU'RE USING A QUANTITATIVE METHOD: Your Dependent Variable(s) Your Independent Variable(s) - could be explanatory variables if you're running a regression analysis (recommended if you have more than 2 IVs) 

c2. IF YOU'RE USING A QUALITATIVE METHOD: What you are trying to measure Relevant theoretical framework(s)

 d. Procedure How are you going to measure the thing you are trying to
measure 

4. How you are going to analyze your data What kind of analysis are you going to do with your data?
What we're looking for: 

1. If you are able to come up with an answerable research question 

2. Your understanding of samples and generalizability 

3. If you are able to pick a reasonable methodology to answer your research question 

4. A general understanding of how different analyses can be used
5. If you are able to design a coherent study
Possible research areas (pick one each week or come up with your own):
-The relationship between social media usage and: mental health, physical health, socialization, polarization, loneliness, democracy, etc. 

-Digital privacy: attitudes, awareness, concerns, consequences, etc.

 -Persuasion technologies (those that encourage engagement): engagement, mental health, cognitive processes (memory, attention, etc.), abilities, attitudes, etc. 

-AR/VR: applications, usability, attitudes, therapeutic uses, training, learning, skill acquisition, etc

. -Education technologies: effectiveness, consequences, adoption, socioeconomic status, learning, interest, attention, etc. 

'-Robotics: attitudes, effectiveness, usability, etc.

 -Cybersecurity: awareness, training effectiveness, attitudes, etc.

 -Interface design: usability, attitudes, accessibility, design features, cognitive load, etc. -Digital media: consumption, consequences, mental health, cognitive processes, relationships 

-Proof of concept: testiiirlWRIPPPYL,MITPRMAttess

These were intentionally left vague so you can come up with research questions in which you're interested

 Methodologies
Quantitative methodologies: 

Correlation (answers is there a relationship between two variables and in what direction does that relationship go)

 T-test: independent (unpaired); repeated measures (looking at changes); one-sample 

ANOVA*: one-way between-subjects; one-way repeated; factorial; mixed 

Linear regression*: models the relationship between a scale (ratio) DV and one or more IVs such that you can plug in any value for the IV and predict the DV

 Logistic regression: models the effects of one or more independent variables on a binary dependent variable 

Cronbach's alpha: measure of reliability (useful for surveys) Nonparametric tests: Wilcoxon signed-rank test:

 paired-samples t-test for nonparametric data Mann-Whitney U test: independent-samples t-test for nonparametric (or ordinal) data 

Chi-squared test: tests the relationship between two categorical (nominal or ordinal) variables
Qualitative methodologies:

Diaries 

Focus groups 

Case studies

 Interviews 

Ethnographies 

User research methodologies: 

A/B testing

 Automated data collection (e.g., clickstream, keypress, time on site) 

Card sort

 Eye-tracking

 Customer feedback 

*ANOVAs that provide more statistical power and can be used with multiple DVs: 

MANOVA: multivariate ANOVA- multiple dependent variables that takes into account the relationship between them

 ANCOVA: analysis of covariance - multiple dependent variable-controls for covariates (confounds) 

MANCOVA: multivariate analysis of covariance - when you have known variates

Other regressions: Multivariate linear regression: multiple predictor variables General linear model (multivariate regression): models the relationship between a non-scalar DV and one or more IVs