UWTSD Research Report: Digital Skills and Technology Collaboration

This report investigates the use of technology in student collaboration at UWTSD (University of Wales Trinity Saint David), employing a quantitative research design. The study explores students' knowledge and use of technology for collaboration, identifies tools like Skype, Google Meet, and Slack used for this purpose, and examines the benefits and complexities of technology-mediated collaboration. Key findings indicate that while most students are familiar with and use technology for collaboration, challenges such as lack of training and insufficient resources exist. The report concludes that providing adequate training and support is crucial to effectively address these complexities and enhance the collaborative learning experience. The research employs questionnaires to gather data from a sample of students, analyzing their perceptions and experiences with technology in collaborative academic settings.

Digital Skills and
Research Methods

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Research Design..........................................................................................................................................3
Research Question:..................................................................................................................................4
Method....................................................................................................................................................5
Ethical considerations..............................................................................................................................6
Results.........................................................................................................................................................6
Discussion.................................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................14
References.................................................................................................................................................15

Introduction
Nowadays, technology has become an important part of daily routine. People are likely to
perform their daily tasks with the help of updated and advance softwares so that they can easily
accomplish their roles & responsibilities. Nowadays, technology is also used by the students so
that they can perform assigned tasks effectively. With the help of updated tools, students can
easily complete their assignments, reports, projects and more. Further, technology also makes it
easy for the students to collaborate with each-other for the completion of group activities
profoundly. This assists students in terms of interacting with each-other significantly. By using
technology, students can use virtual, online platforms to gain valuable insights and maintain
proper interaction in significant manner (Wu and Chiu, 2018). In this regard, chosen University
is UWTSD that is a multi campus University. It has three key campuses in England, London and
centre of learning in Wales. The present study is based on use of technology by the students of
UWTSD to collaborate with each-other effectively. It will cover research design, questions,
methodology and more to complete the project successfully.
Research Design
Basically research design refers to the framework including research methods &
techniques to complete a project in systematic manner. By having appropriate research design, it
is possible to sharpen the research methods to ensure success of study in future period of time.
Research design allows the investigator to carry out the research project in systematic manner.
An appropriate research design makes the researcher enable to get significant results by
undertaking the project study in proper manner (Mukherjee, 2019). In addition, it allows the
researcher to choose suitable methods that are also useful for the study and set up their own
study successfully in the future period of time. In this context, there are three major research
designs such as qualitative, quantitative and mixed method. Here, qualitative design is about
collecting detailed and in-depth information from different sources like focus group, interviews,
group discussion and more. On other side, quantitative design is related to use numerical,
statistical and mathematical techniques for analyzing and evaluating the data. Mixed approach is
a combination of both quantitative and qualitative research design. The present study is based on

quantitative research design where numerical tools will be used to interpret and analyze the data
appropriately (Bresler and Stake, 2017).
Research Question:
Research question is a specific inquiry that researcher wishes to gather through the
existing project work. It is related to the core systematic investigation and helps the researcher in
successful completion of the project work. Further, it also helps in clarifying the path of
researcher in order to generate a proper response. It is basically the first step of completing a
project study and consider as a primary step of investigation which sets pace for the rest of the
work (Daniel, Kumar and Omar, 2018).
Question 1) Do you have knowledge about using technological aspects in collaboration?
a) Yes
b) No
Question 2) In your opinion, which tools can be used to maintain collaboration at University?
a) Skype
b) Google meet
c) Slack
Question 3) What do you think, are student using technology to collaborate with each-other?
a) Yes
b) No
Question 4) What are the benefits of using recent and updated technology in collaboration?
a) Increasing productivity
b) Facilitate communication
c) Development of new & innovative approaches
Question 5) According to you, what are the necessary complexities of using technology for
collaborating each-other?
a) Lack of training
b) Insufficient resources
c) Absence of proper training
Question 6) In your opinion, what are the necessary strategies to deal with the barriers while
using technology for collaboration?

a) Training to the students
b) Giving feedback on collaborative work
c) Providing support
Method
Research methods can be understood as the techniques that are used to collect data for
analysis to develop better understanding regarding a specific topic. Basically, these are the tools
that are applied to complete a research project in successful manner. The major two methods of
research are quantitative and qualitative. Here, Quantitative method is used to accumulate and
evaluate numerical information using statistical tools in significant manner. There is use of
numerical, statistical tools & techniques so that appropriate results can be gathered. Further, the
use of mathematical tools is also helpful in getting authentic and reliable results for the future
betterment (Davidavičienė, 2018). Moreover, it is the way of studying a topic systematically by
collecting numerical facts and figures efficiently and conducting mathematical or computational
techniques and performing surveys using questionnaires.
In contrast, qualitative method is about gathering detailed & in-depth information
regarding a specific topic. This method is important to undertake study regarding a specific topic
in detailed manner. Further, it is useful in terms of getting answer of the question why the
particular study is being undertaken. Additionally, this is related with undertaking observation or
case study that will result in a narrative, descriptive account of practice. Qualitative method is
related with dealing non-numerical information to collect in-depth information regarding a
specific topic (Clandinin, Cave and Berendonk, 2017).
In context of the present study, quantitative research method has been used in order to
identify patterns, average, develop anticipations, generalize outcomes and develop broad
assumptions in an efficient manner. Further, quantitative method is based on receiving
quantifiable information and conducting mathematical, numerical and computation analysis with
an aim to get meaningful outcomes in the future period of time.

Ethical considerations
Ethical consideration is an important part of the overall research project to ensure that all
the necessary ethical principles have been followed by the investigator to complete the project
systematically. In this regard, the researcher follows suitable ethical practices at the time of data
collection. Here, following ethical principle is really important to complete a research project in
proper manner. In this regard, the major ethical principles are obtaining consent, confidentiality,
anonymity and more. Under ethical consideration, it is the responsibility of researcher to keep
the data safe & secure. Following necessary ethical principle will help in terms of collecting data
without hurting the sentiments and feelings of respondents (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2017).
Results
Question 1) Do you have knowledge about using technological aspects
in collaboration?
Frequency
a) Yes 18
b) No 2
Question 2) In your opinion, which tools can be used to maintain
collaboration at University?
Frequency
a) Skype 8
b) Google meet 5
c) Slack 7
Question 3) What do you think, are student using technology to
collaborate with each-other?
Frequency
a) Yes 16
b) No 4
Question 4) What are the benefits of using recent and updated
technology in collaboration?
Frequency
a) Increasing productivity 7
b) Facilitate communication 6
c) Development of new & innovative approaches 7
Question 5) According to you, what are the necessary complexities of
using technology for collaborating each-other?
Frequency

a) Lack of training 9
b) Insufficient resources 6
c) Absence of proper training 5
Question 6) In your opinion, what are the necessary strategies to deal
with the barriers while using technology for collaboration?
Frequency
a) Training to the students 10
b) Giving feedback on collaborative work 6
c) Providing support 4
Question 1) Do you have knowledge about using technological
aspects in collaboration?
Frequency
a) Yes 18
b) No 2
a) Yes b) No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Interpretation: Out of the above dia-gram, it is analyze that 18 respondents are in favor of the
fact that they have knowledge regarding use of technology in collaboration whereas 2

participants are not likely to have sufficient knowledge about how to use technology to
collaborate with each-other significantly.
Question 2) In your opinion, which tools can be used to maintain
collaboration at University?
Frequency
a) Skype 8
b) Google meet 5
c) Slack 7
a) Skype b) Google meet c) Slack
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Interpretation: After gathering information from the 20 participants, it is found that 8
respondents are in favor of Skype as a collaboration tool at University. Further, 5 participants
consider that Google meet is the most important tool that is used to maintain collaboration at
University premises. Rest 7 individuals are in favor of slack as an important tool of collaboration
within University.
Question 3) What do you think, are student using technology to Frequency

collaborate with each-other?
a) Yes 16
b) No 4
a) Yes b) No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Interpretation: Through above dia-gram, it is analyzed that 16 participants out of 20 are in favor
of using technology for the purpose of collaboration whereas 4 participants are not likely to use
technology to maintain necessary collaboration with each-other.
Question 4) What are the benefits of using recent and updated Frequency

technology in collaboration?
a) Increasing productivity 7
b) Facilitate communication 6
c) Development of new & innovative approaches 7
a) Increasing
productivity b) Facilitate
communication c) Development of
new & innovative
approaches
5.4
5.6
5.8
6
6.2
6.4
6.6
6.8
7
7.2
Interpretation: After interviewing 20 participants, it is analyzed that 7 respondents consider that
increasing productivity is one of the most significant benefit of using technology to collaborate
whereas 6 participants consider that facilitating communication is the other major benefit of
using recent and updated technology for collaboration. Rest, 7 participants agree about
development of new and innovative approaches as the most important benefit of using updated
technology for the purpose of collaboration.

Question 5) According to you, what are the necessary complexities of
using technology for collaborating each-other?
Frequency
a) Lack of training 9
b) Insufficient resources 6
c) Absence of proper training 5
a) Lack of training b) Insufficient
resources c) Absence of proper
training
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Interpretation: It is analyzed that 9 respondents consider that lack of training is one of the major
issues of using technology for collaboration at University whereas as per 6 respondents
insufficient resources is the major challenges of using technology for collaboration. Other, 5
participants consider absence of proper training as one of the significant challenge of
maintaining collaboration using technology.
Question 6) In your opinion, what are the necessary strategies to deal
with the barriers while using technology for collaboration?
Frequency
a) Training to the students 10
b) Giving feedback on collaborative work 6
c) Providing support 4

a) Training to the
students b) Giving feedback
on collaborative work c) Providing support
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Interpretation: Out of the above dia-gram, it is monitored that 10 respondents are in favor of
providing training to the students to deal with issues of collaboration. On other side, 6
respondents consider that giving feedback is the significant strategy to deal with the complexities
caused by use of technology in collaboration. Rest, 4 participants are in favor of providing
support as an important strategy to deal with the issues occurs due to the use of technology in
collaboration.
Discussion
Through the above-analysis, it is found that majority of the people are well-familiar with
the use of technology in collaboration. Further, there are ample of tools such as Google meet,
Skype and more are used for virtual collaboration. As per present study, the most used tool is
Skype. Additionally, most of the students took part in the study are likely to use technology to
collaborate with each-other. The most significant benefit of using technology for collaboration
has been identified as increasing productivity and development of new & innovative approach.
As per the majority of the respondents lack of training to the students is one of the most
significant complexities that is faced by students while collaborating using technology. It is