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Chapter Three
Research Methodology
This research method defines important things related to this research. Several
important points will be mentioned in this chapter. This chapter will discuss the
methods used by the researcher to examine students’ anxiety participating in online
learning activities using game-based learning when the researcher carries out the
study and the participants involved in this research.
Research Design
This study aims to know how to manifest students’ anxiety in participating in
online learning activities and how the students deal with the anxiety. The researcher
will use a qualitative approach in this research. Qualitative research is done by
highlighting a certain aspect or discussion that is usually a descriptive form of
structured and systematic words or phrases (Ibrahim, 2015). According to Creswell
(2018), qualitative research is structured using words rather than numbers. Therefore,
the qualitative approach is appropriate to the method used in this study.
The research design used is descriptive qualitative. According to Creswell
(2018), qualitative research is used to find out and understand the meaning of social
problems according to the views of individuals or groups. This research uses a
qualitative descriptive design because the researcher would like to describe the study
of students’ anxiety in participating in online learning activities using game-based
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learning. Data collection of qualitative descriptive studies focuses on inquiry from the
humanities regarding the specific events under the study (Nassaji, 2015).
Research Setting
This research will be conducted from February to March 2021. This research
will be conducted at the English Language Education Department (ELED). The
ELED department is located at one of the private Islamic universities in Yogyakarta.
The researcher will choose the major from the private Islamic university for several
reasons. The first reason is that the department carries out online learning. The second
reason is based on the researcher’s experience in English Language Education
Department (ELED) using several game-based learning as learning activities during
online learning in Material Design and Language Learning and Acquisition courses.
This is based on the researcher’s experience during online learning that the researcher
is curious about the manifest of students' anxiety and students' strategy in
participating in online learning activities using game-based learning as a learning
activity. Another reason, why the researcher choose ELED because the researcher is
currently studying in this department and making it easier for the researcher to collect
data.
Research Participant
In this study, the researcher will involve 6 students of the class of 2020 as
participants. The class of 2020 students is chosen by the researcher because the class
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was carried out using online learning and used game-based learning as an online
learning activity. The researcher will use purposive sampling. According to Cohen,
Manion, and Morrison (2011), purposive sampling is collecting respondents not in a
general way and compared, but collecting respondents according to the criteria
determined by the researcher.
In this study, the researcher needs criteria to find the participants. The
researcher will choose ELED students batch 2020 who have anxiety in using game-
based learning for online learning activities. The anxiety for this refers to shaking,
nervousness, nail-biting, and sweating. To find the appropriate participant criteria, the
researcher will conduct a small-scale survey using the questionnaire method through
the Google Form platform.
In the questionnaire, the researcher will arrange questions to find participants
appropriate to the required criteria. The first question is have participants ever
participated in online learning activities using game-based learning. In this question,
the researcher will provide the answer often, rare, and never. The next question is
what the participants feel when participating in online learning activities using game-
based learning. The last question is have the participants feel anxiety when
participating in online learning using game-based learning. This questionnaire will
use Indonesian language to make the participants understand to answer the questions.
After the questionnaires are arranged, the researcher will distribute the questionnaire
to the class of 2020 group by asking one of them to distribute the questionnaire.
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Data Collection Method
This study will investigate the students' anxiety participating in online
learning activity using game-based learning which has two research questions. The
first research question is how participating in online courses using game-based
manifests students' anxiety. The second research question is how students deal with
their anxiety. To answer the research questions in this study, the researcher will use
interviews to collect data from the participants. Interviews are used to evaluate
participants in several aspects, collect information, develop hypotheses, and take
samples of participants' opinions (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2011).
The researcher will use standardized open-ended interviews to collect data.
Standardized open-ended interviews are used to determine participants’ responses
according to the participants' experiences (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2011). By
using this method, the researcher will find out about students' anxiety in participating
in online learning activities using game-based learning according to the experiences
experienced by participants.
Research Instrument
In this study, the researcher will determine students' anxiety manifestation in
participating online learning activities using game-based learning. To find students'
anxiety manifestation in participating online learning activities using game-based
learning, the researcher will interview participants. The first step, the researcher will
introduce herself and explain the purpose of the research conducted by the researcher
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to the participants. Then, the researcher will explain the procedures during the
interview, such as the number of questions, the time that will be used during the
interview. Before the interview begins, the researcher will ask the participants if they
have any questions before the interview begins.
The second step, the researcher will do ice-breaking. The reason is to make
participants do not feel nervous during the interview. In this step, the researcher may
ask several things about the participants, such as the name of the participant and the
class.
The next step, the researcher will interview participants about students'
anxiety manifestation in participating online learning activities using game-based
learning. This interview will have approximately 7 questions. The time for the
interview takes for 1 participant approximately 25-30 minutes depending on the
answer from the participants. The tools when recording will use an audio recorder,
pen, and paper to help the researcher to transcribe the interview results.
Data Collection Procedure
The data collection procedure is a strategy in research because the objective of
doing research is to obtain the data. Without knowing the procedure of data
collection, the research will not achieve the standard data that the researchers need.
First, the researcher will make the interview protocols.
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The procedure is started with the development of the interview protocol. The
protocol will be developed based on the topic and research questions. The interview
protocol consists of the introduction of the interview, the opening questions, the
content questions, and the probes that will be used when the researcher need a
detailed explanation and the closing statements. After the interview protocol is
constructed, then the researcher will ask the participants through Whatsapp to ask
permission about the interview. The interview will be conducted via Whatsapp call,
due to the pandemic, the researcher cannot meet in person with the participants.
Therefore the interview will be conducted online. Then, after the interview is
constructed, the researcher will start to transcript the interview audio and start to
analyze the data.
Data Analysis
In the next stage, researchers will analyze the data obtained. The researcher
will convert the interview results into transcripts. Then the researcher will do member
checking to check whether every point given by the participants is listed correctly or
not. The researcher will send the transcript of the interview to the participants to
confirm whether or not it was in line with what they said.
After doing member checking, the researcher will analyze the data using
coding. According to Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2011), coding is the process of
labeling and organizing qualitative data to identify different themes and their
relationships. In this study, researchers used three types of coding, namely open
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coding, axial coding, and selective coding. After coding to analyze the data, the
researcher will describe the findings from the data that has been collected.
Trustworthiness
In qualitative research, testing the validity of the data consists of testing the
validity and reliability. Validity is an effort to check the accuracy of research results
by applying certain procedures (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2011). The following
data validity strategies that will be used in this study are member checking and
coding.
Member checking. In this case, the researcher checks the data that has been
obtained from the data provider, whether the data provided by the data provider has
met the truth or is valid. The data obtained by the researcher has been given by the
data provider for the validity of the data in the data research. According to Creswell
(2018), member checking is to determine the accuracy of the data through the results
of the final report and the researcher can conduct follow-up interviews with
participants to provide opportunities for participants to comment on the findings. The
researchers did a member checking through the participants and double-checked the
answer from the participants. Some vague answers will ask again for a detailed
explanation and to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation.
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Coding
In analyzing the data, the researcher will analyze the scripts of the data
(coding). Coding is the process of compiling data using columns, text, or images and
writing words that represent the categories that have been found in a study (Creswell,
2018). The first stage, the researcher will copy the results of the audio interview into
text. Then, the researcher will change the subject sentence into a well-ordered
sentence without changing the actual meaning. Next step, the researcher interprets the
results of the interview. Finally, the researcher divides according to categories and
collects similarities or facts to find key themes as material to describe the data.