Subject of the Study Role of the Researcher Research Design

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CHAPTER III METHOD OF INVESTIGATION

This chapter covers subject of the study, role of the researcher, research design, validity and reliability, methods of collecting data, and methods of analyzing data. Obtaining the exhaustive result in this final project, I conducted this research study in two ways, namely library research and field research. In short, I went to the library to select certain ideas from books or references to be quoted so that the possible bias and controversies could be avoided. The result of the library research was presented mostly in the previous chapter. Whereas, in concluding the field research, I conducted focus group discussion with some students and gave questionnaires to them.

3.1 Subject of the Study

The subject of this study is students of SMA Nasima Semarang Central Java. I chose this school since it had internet laboratory which was considered as the main factor of this research. The participants were from tenth and eleventh grade students. Actually, I intended to do this research for twelve grade too, but, due to some considerations from the headmaster that they had to focus in preparing national final examination, I canceled it. 25

3.2 Role of the Researcher

In this study, I took the roles as the data collector, facilitator and data analyzer. The data is collected from some resources. I went to libraries and browsed the internet to get detailed information about distance learning, e-learning, and, especially, EdukasiNet. The collected data, then, was analyzed to make the basis of the research. To collect information about students’ perception on EdukasiNet, I conducted discussions. During the discussions, I lead the discussions as a moderator and note-taker. Prior to the discussions, I had given questionnaire to the participants. I, finally, analyzed the data and reported the result.

3.3 Research Design

Research design of this final project is qualitative, since the data is collected in the form of words rather than numbers. Berg pointed out “Qualitative approach thus refers to the meaning, concepts, definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and description of things” Berg and Bruce, L 1989:2. Miles and Huberman 1994:10 stated that the strength of qualitative data is that they focus in naturally occurring ordinary events in natural setting, so that I have a strong handle on what “real life” is like. Parallel to this, according to Moleong 2007:6 qualitative approach is a study aimed to understand phenomena about something which is experienced by the subject holistically and in a descriptive way, in a naturally context and it applies some natural methods. This study is 26 descriptive qualitative study which focuses on the analysis of the discussion. It is in accordance with Sulistyo 2008:110 who stated that descriptive approach attempts to find an exact and appropriate description for activities, process, and human. The simplest way to define qualitative study is to say that it is a study that involves interpretational data which will be interpreted descriptively.

3.4 Methods of Collecting Data