Report on Quasi-Experiment for Evaluating SEES

Arthur, James and Frakes, William and Gupta, Sanjay and Cannon, Martha and Groener, Markus and Khan, Zakia (1995) Report on Quasi-Experiment for Evaluating SEES. Technical Report ncstrl.vatech_cs//TR-95-24, Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Abstract

The purpose of this document is to describe the design and execution of the quasi-experiment conducted in the Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech, in accordance with the procedures described in the document, "An Experimental Design for Evaluating SEES" prepared for NASA under contract NASI-19610, Task 17. (Hereafter that report is called the general design document.) The quasi-experiment serves three important purposes. First, the quasi-experiment is the proof of concept of the general experiment design. It shows that the procedures defined in the general experiment design can be implemented. Second, provides details for setting up a true experiment: identifying the research hypothesis, designing the investigation, selecting various variables, procedures, and controls, measuring the variables, and evaluating the results. Third, any insights revealed during the course of the quasi-experiment can be incorporated in the costly true experiment, thus providing a cost-effective experimental methodology. This report contains sufficient information so that the quasi-experiment can be replicated at an appropriate level of abstraction. We also document and interpret all the results of the quasi-experiment.