What is the purpose of Jane and Rick’s meeting with the tutor?

Tutor　　Jane and Rick-nice to see you both. How’s your presentation coming along?
Jane　　 Well, that’s why we’re here-we’d like to ask you for some clarification.
Rick　　 Yes, I’m afraid we are not quite sure that we understand exactly what you’d like us
　　　　 to include in our report.
Tutor　　I’m glad that you came to see me-but the deadline is only three weeks away-are
　　　　 you going to have it done by then?
Jane　　 Oh yes-we think we’ve done most of the time-consuming work-we just have to
　　　　 pull the information from the survey together and present it in the right format.
Tutor　　That’s good to hear-collating is the fun part. Did you follow the steps I outlined in
　　　　 the questionnaire survey?
Jane　　 Yes. We found that the most difficult step was the first one-defining our objectives
　　　　 and then of course writing the items to match.
Tutor　　What topic did you choose?
Rick　　 We decided to survey international students about their experiences and the
　　　　 challenges that they faced when they first came to Australia.
Tutor　　Right-that’s a very broad topic to survey...
Jane　　 We found that out the hard way.
Rick　　 Sure did-but we are happy with our work, aren’t we Jane?
Jane　　 Yes, so far.
Rick　　 Yes, so far. We handed out almost 400 surveys to international students-not all
　　　　 from Longholm either. We sent 150 to the Western Australian Education Department
　　　　 in Perth and 120 to Griffin Technical College in Melbourne.
Tutor　　I’m pleased to hear that you didn’t restrict the survey to Longholm.
Rick　　 No, we wanted to find out the responses from a range of international students in
　　　　 Australia, as opposed to the experiences at one tertiary institution only.
Jane　　 We chose a technical college as well as a university campus and a high school-that
　　　　 gave us access to students of different ages and different disciplines.
Tutor　　So how many respondents did you get?
Jane　　 Well, in our trial of the survey, we received 44 out of the 50 surveys-that’s 88%-
　　　　 but that was tightly controlled. We didn’t expect such a high percentage of returns
　　　　 from the actual survey itself. We had hoped to receive about 70%.
Rick　　 We were both a bit surprised really-we got over 320 surveys returned-322 to be
　　　　 exact. That’s 80%!
Tutor　　322 out of 400-yes, that is an impressive rate of response. Did you have to do a lot
　　　　 of follow-up work to get those?
Rick　　 We sent out some postcard reminders to some students who hadn’t returned the
　　　　 surveys by the deadline and from them we received another 38 surveys back.
Jane　　 Rick had written a very persuasive transmittal letter that accompanied the survey.
　　　　 In the letter, he appealed for their individual contributions so that the situations for
　　　　 international students might improve.
Tutor　　Transmittal letters can be very effective-well done! So it sounds like you’ve
　　　　 followed the correct procedure up until now-you set your objectives and wrote
　　　　 items to match those objectives. You gave out trial surveys-collected them-
　　　　 chased the late surveys. I hope you had also analysed your pre-test trial results
　　　　 before sending out the actual surveys.
Jane　　 Yes, analysing the data from the trial survey was very useful. We checked all of
　　　　 the responses to each item in the pre-test and found a pattern in some items that
　　　　 had been left unanswered. We re-wrote those items that were ambiguous or open to
　　　　 different interpretation. The actual survey worked better because of this.
Tutor　　Trial surveys can be invaluable. So you sent out your transmittal letters with the
　　　　 survey and got a high percentage of responses. You shouldn’t have any problems
　　　　 making general conclusions for your survey.
Rick　　 Yes, we have collated all of our data-which took ages after we received the actual
　　　　 surveys back. We haven’t started to make conclusions yet because we are not sure
　　　　 how to begin our report.
Tutor　　You’ve done the majority of the work-as Jane said, the time-consuming part.
　　　　 It’ll probably help you to know the three main criteria I’ll be using to mark your
　　　　 presentations. The first is the quality of your questions’ objectives-make sure that
　　　　 you don’t give me aims of the survey. I want clear objectives for each item. The
　　　　 second criterion is the quality of the items in your questionnaire.
Rick　　 We are quite confident with the items. We analysed the pre-test trial quite
　　　　 thoroughly.
Tutor　　Yes, you have already completed that section obviously. The third criterion will be
　　　　 judging the quality of your analysis of the data and the conclusions that you draw.
　　　　 This is always the most interesting part of the presentations for me.
Rick　　 Should this include percentages and tables and graphs to display the data?
Tutor　　Absolutely-make your conclusions as visual as possible. They should be easy to
　　　　 read and easy to follow. Ensure that the tables and graphs are clearly labelled with
　　　　 appropriate headings and only include relevant data.
Rick　　 That’s great-thank you very much. We know what we need to do next.
Jane　　 Yes-thanks a lot.
Tutor　　My pleasure-I look forward to seeing your presentation in March.