Article Review #1

Brent Domann

September 20, 2011

Article Review # 1

This is a review of:

Dolinsky, A.L. (2010).  The adequacy of the information that students utilize when choosing a college: an attribute importance and information sufficiency approach.  College Student Journal, 44(3), 762-76.

Introduction

The purpose of this article and its underlying research is to examine several facets of the stage at which students evaluate prospective colleges by gathering information on them.  The goal of the article is to analyze the results of a survey to determine whether or not colleges are meeting the information needs of prospective students with respect to important considerations the student group has and, additionally, relatively how much effort should be put into improving information access regarding several of these specific considerations.

This study and its analysis are quite relevant to the research topic that is forming for me now.  As our economy tightens further and the number of credentialed graduates grows every year, many unsuccessful job applicants are finding that old assumptions about the value of education in employability are not what they once were.  Thus it seems that a stronger emphasis on providing forthright, complete, and detailed post-graduation statistics might be necessary.  Although I look to a more concentrated research subject group, the question, methodology, and analysis in this article offer an exceptional starting point for designing a research study.

Below are examinations of this article based on nine considerations given in Chapter 13 of Fred Pyrczak’s Evaluating research in academic journals: A practical guide to realistic Evaluation (2008). 

Problem Statement: 

This study and its report attempt to address whether college students are getting information about prospective colleges in a useful way.  It looks to what information students find most relevant to deciding on what college to attend and also to how completely that information was provided to them while they were seeking it.  Dolinksy, the researcher and author, attempts to rectify any discrepancies between information need and information access.

Dolinsky has definitely identified an important problem.  As the need for higher education as a credential continues to grow, it becomes ever more important to assess what the information needs of prospective students are so that they can make informed choices when picking an institution. 

Literature Review 

Dolinsky's literature review is well done and reflective.  He examines the existing literature for holes in the information landscape and designs his study to address some of the most glaring deficiencies he can identify.  He walks through several previous studies spanning roughly 35 years of inquiry, and notes how each of these speaks to an aspect of  his current research problem.  Specifically, he notes that studies have been done regarding information sources for prospective college students, sources of influence on college choice, the chief considerations in choosing one college over another, and the impact of gender on the above.  He further notes that none of these studies has focused on the sufficiency of such information and therefore sets forth the boundaries of his research problem. 

Method 

Dolinksy's method is to utilize a random sample of undergraduate students at a university and survey them regarding the importance of given college-related attributes in deciding to attend their particular college and, further, to inquire about the sufficiency of the information they were given while prospective students regarding those attributes.  Both variables (attribute importance and information sufficiency for each attribute) are rated on a scale of 1-7 (a "Likert scale").  Information sufficiency results are then considered or analyzed both independently and in combination with attribute importance to aid in prioritizing information given to prospective students.

Dolinsky  is very reflective regarding his analysis (as he is with his literature review).  He analyzes his results in a concise, objective manner and is careful to neither overstate nor miss any of his results.  His conclusions are carefully drawn and look both back to how his research corroborates earlier related studies and also forward to how it might be improved and how it might be put to practical use. 

Caveats 

There are no major methodological flaws that were unavoidable, though there are some minor issues that the report should discuss.  The research was gathered by survey, and the report has inadequate caveats about the reliability of such research.  Furthermore, as a matter of necessity for conducting the study the researcher was forced to categorize types or bundles of information as 'attributes' in order to create the research survey.  There could be better recognition that such categories were at some level chosen or formed arbitrarily. 

Conclusion 

Dolinsky's report is very cohesive and follows a very clean and clear path from problem statement through a review of literature to the culminating study (namely its methodology, results, and an analysis of its results).  The entire document works as a whole and is quite effective. It is clear about its intention to extend the boundaries of knowledge on its topic as it identifies shortcomings and missed opportunities in previous studies that it seeks to address.  Perhaps more importantly, it indeed addresses these opportunities and provides several suggestions regarding how future researchers might contribute to the extension of knowledge in this area.

As such, Dolinsky's research is likely to inspire additional research in this area and in fact encourages it.  Moreover, one of the chief stated goals of this study and report is to provide suggestions for practical application of their results.  In other words, this research inspires further inquiry and also aids in decision making (particularly by institutions serving the subject group).  

This report is certainly worthy of its publication in an academic journal.  It is on the whole well-written, has a solid and inclusive literature review, is focused and concise, and provides understandable and useful data and analysis.  Any peer would be proud to be attached to this research article. 

Bibliography 

Dolinsky, A.L. (2010).  The adequacy of the information that students utilize when choosing a college: an attribute importance and information sufficiency approach.  College Student Journal, 44(3), 762-76.

Pyrczak, F. (2008). Evaluating research in academic journals: A practical guide to realistic evaluation. Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.