In last week’s discussion, you compared descriiptive quantitative research designs. This week you will look at experimental designs. There are four main
quantitative experimental research designs, which all serve specific research purposes. The four experimental research designs include 1) pre-experimental,
2) true experimental, 3) quasi-experimental, and 4) ex post facto. You will find similarities and differences among the four research designs, as well as
determine which research design may be suitable for your selected topic. As you learn about the four experimental research designs, think about how you
could potentially use one or more of these research designs to conduct your own study based on your selected topic from Week 1.
Prior to beginning work on this discussion,
Read Chapter 7 of the textbook.
Watch Research Methods: Experimental DesignLinks to an external site.
In your initial discussion forum post,
Compare and contrast these four experimental research designs: pre-experimental, true experimental, quasi-experimental, and ex post facto.
In your comparison, include the following:
Discuss two similarities and two differences of the four experimental research designs. To guide you, you may consider answering the following questions:
What are the necessary conditions required for each design?
What are some of the potential threats to internal and external validity for each design?
Explain, briefly, how one of these research designs may be appropriate for your selected topic.