Grad Student Looking for Help with Thesis Project

[EEGradStudent]

Hello all, I'm looking to get some help with completing my thesis, I'm a grad student in electrical and computer engineering. Right now I'm trying to collect some initial data. If you have 2-3 minutes, I'd really appreciate it if you could take my survey! Thanks!

https://utexas.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1NuaNUI8Rp1p9ae

 

[Visitor]

I'm somewhat offended by your survey.

Why, you might ask? Click on "None of the above" and you get the door slammed in your face. The next screen you see is this one.

Yes, I am not a parent. I'm gay. That doesn't mean I don't have friends and relatives with kids whose education I'm not interested or even involved in. It doesn't mean I have nothing to add. I'll add that my partner and I vote for every school levy and bond issue that comes up. For the simple reason we don't want dumb kids.

Research Methods for Social Sciences might be a good addition to your curriculum in order to create a non-biased survey and get meaningful results.

 

[Visitor]

I guess EEgradstudent just did a drive-by to post his survey, never to return again.

 

[simonbramble]

Visitor: While I accept your viewpoint, I don't necessarily agree with it. If he is just soliciting feedback from parents, teachers or students at the school then his survey is perfectly acceptable. By your admission (and if you are not a teacher), then you don't fit into these categories. That does not mean to say that your opinion is not important. It just means that your opinion does not fit into the metric the survey is asking for. There is nothing offensive about asking such a question. Your opinion is valid elsewhere, just not in this survey.

I agree with you: any civilised society has to put resources into making teaching excellent. This is the only way for society to grow and create, amongst other things, tolerance

 

[rjenkinsgb]

I'm a grad student in electrical and computer engineering.

With a survey that excludes many electrical and computer engineers??

I'm an electrical and computer engineer, but I'd be excluded from that as well as I work and am not a parent of a student.
It does seem to have contradictory requirements - and why post on an electronics forum if the survey eligibility is unrelated to electronics etc??

Very odd.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

When i was working full-time, I was going to school too. I had to play the teacher role at work when training others.

 

[Visitor]

The survey results could be sorted by

□ parent
□ teacher
□ neither

It's an extra step, but I would expect the results should be sorted by parent or teacher already, as these two groups may have vastly different viewpoints.

To arbitrary exclude a large group of people from answering is a poorly designed survey, and may miss valuable information.

This reminds me of many political surveys I have seen, with questions like:

1. Which do you agree with most:
□ Our guy is good.
□ Their guy is bad.

 

[simonbramble]

1. Which do you agree with most:
□ Our guy is good.
□ Their guy is bad.

Heads I win
Tails you lose

Politics is the same the world over

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I like the survey when they say:

We did a survey, but didn't tell you that they made up the results to get what management wants.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

We did a survey, but didn't tell you that they made up the results to get what management wants.

The Mark Twain quote comes to mind: “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

 

[EEGradStudent]

Those are some very helpful comments, our main objective with the survey is to learn more about how parents are educating their kids about engineering topics. However we also wanted to collect data on how many respondents are either students or teachers because we may do a similar study using those demographics as well. Thanks for your help!

 

[Pommie]

The Mark Twain quote comes to mind: “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

You now have to add computer models. If a computer says it then it must be correct!!!!

Mike.
My favourite statistic, "Think yourself lucky as you have more arms and legs than the average human.".

 

[Visitor]

My favourite statistic, "Think yourself lucky as you have more arms and legs than the average human.".

Want to stir up trouble? Loudly announce "Half the people in this room are below average!"

That may lead to a lot of shouting. "Below average in what?!?"

Reply "Anything. Everything. You name it."

Technically, slightly incorrect, as it is actually the mean (or is it median?) of the people in the room (or forum ), but without thinking, people will say you're being negative, etc.

 

[unclejed613]

You now have to add computer models. If a computer says it then it must be correct!!!!

it's easier to prove your theory is correct with a computer model because you can hide your biases and data manipulation deep in the code where nobody will find it...

it's like the "generic" op amp model in LTSpice.... give it a gain of one billion with the proper feedback and input resistors, put in 1 volt at the input, and you get 1GV out.... only one problem... the components and power supply to actually BUILD it don't exist...

there once was a government think tank paper that described a model of the US economy using an op amp with many inputs and feedback loops etc... it described how an amplifier could produce errors and instability with some of the inputs moving up or down too fast for the amplifier to properly respond..... my nightmare is that somewhere at the Federal Reserve, there's a 1970s computer with a software model of an LM741 on it, and they're still using it to model the US economy.....

 

[granddad]

I would prefer if EEgrad .. whatever would refer to 'them' as children .. would you call a capacitor a resistor ? , so why a child a s a young goat ?
( Small rant , I feel better now )

 

[BenH1]

OMG! I need to do so much work for a thesis, I already feel tired and unmotivated. The application essay gave me enough headaches, I didn't think that it will be so hard to write about myself, I really didn't know how to show them everything I know. But I found on the Internet a mba essay edit service which told me how to write it step by step and I understood how to write such an essay, it is not so difficult if you know some tips. It is very good when you can find everything on the Internet, but it is a pity that they don't teach us this in school.

 

[Ramussons]

Visitor: While I accept your viewpoint, I don't necessarily agree with it. If he is just soliciting feedback from parents, teachers or students at the school then his survey is perfectly acceptable. By your admission (and if you are not a teacher), then you don't fit into these categories. That does not mean to say that your opinion is not important. It just means that your opinion does not fit into the metric the survey is asking for. There is nothing offensive about asking such a question. Your opinion is valid elsewhere, just not in this survey.

I agree with you: any civilised society has to put resources into making teaching excellent. This is the only way for society to grow and create, amongst other things, tolerance

The Surveyor could have mentioned at the start that he was seeking response only from P, T and S.
Else, he could have mentioned it in response to the 4th option.
Or not given the 4th option.
Politeness costs nothing.