Need 1500 words Dissertation/research method on the impact of Cryptocurrencies in the UAE.

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Table of Contents Research Aim 3 Research Objectives 3 Research Philosophy 3 Data Collection 5 Data Analysis 6 Ethical Issues 7 Structure 8 Research Timeline 9 References 10

Impact of Technology on Accounting Education in the UAE

Research Aim

The aim of this research is to examine whether the university curriculum has incorporated changes in technology in their accounting education.

Research Objectives

· To explore the perceptions of former students whether the accounting education given to them by universities has prepared them for changes in technology.

· To examine the perception of teachers and professors whether the accounting education given to students is making them well equipped for the accounting world and its technological changes.

· To investigate and perform a content analysis of the course timetable the universities follow for the courses of accounting.

Research Philosophy

Philosophy stems from the idea that there are various views of the world we live in and the processes that operate in it. Philosophy deals with the views of the world, how it works, and in the case of philosophy as an academic subject, it focuses primarily on the knowledge, reality, and existence (Mason, 2014). Research philosophy can be defined as a belief about the way the information and the data about a subject should be collected, examined and then used. Two of the research philosophies have been discussed in this dissertation which are ontology and epistemology (Davison, 1998).

The study of being is called Ontology (Crotty, 1998). It questions the nature of human beings and the nature of reality in the world (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). A lot of research suggests that ontology deals with the assumptions made by the researchers on how the world operates and commitment held to specific views by initiating social phenomena (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2008; Wilson, 2010; Zikmund, 2003).

Epistemology deals with the forms and the nature of knowledge. The epistemological assumptions are made on how the knowledge or data that we use is created, acquired and finally communicated, or to sum it up in a single line, what it means to know (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2007).

The three main types of paradigms used to understand and investigate reality that is relevant to this dissertation are discussed below that are pragmatism, positivism, and interpretivism.

Pragmatism is the research paradigm suitable for this dissertation for the topic “The impact of information technology in the accounting education system in the UAE”. It is another part of the research paradigm used to study reality which is different from the contradicting positivist and interpretivist research paradigms (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 1998).

To establish their research outline, pragmatist researchers begin their research using the research question rather than deciding on ontology and epistemology as their belief. They think that objectivism and subjectivism perceptions can coexist together. Therefore, to understand social phenomena a combination of ontology, epistemology, and axiology research philosophies can be used. The importance here is given to what solves the research problem in the best manner. The researchers supporting pragmatism prefer using both quantitative and qualitative data for their research as it allows them to understand social reality better than working with just one type of data (Wahyuni, 2012).

Positivist paradigm assumes that the research is separate from the researcher and the outcomes of the research will not be affected by the researcher, the underlying being that objects are absolute, and it cannot be altered, it is the duty of the researcher to derive the meaning from it. This paradigm requires the use of surveys, questionnaires and other types of quantitative data and the topic taken for this dissertation cannot be completely relied upon this type of data (Scotland, 2012)

Interpretive paradigm, unlike positivist paradigm, is linked with subjectivism, the individual perspective plays a greater role in understanding the phenomenon by understanding the interaction between individuals and investigating it by taking into account the cultural and historical context within which entities dwell in. This paradigm uses interviews, focus groups, case studies and other types of qualitative data as its research methods but this dissertation cannot fully take the approach of interpretive paradigm (Creswell, 2009).

This is the reason why pragmatism research paradigm is the most appropriate paradigm chosen for this dissertation. Taking this combination of both positivism and interpretivism would help understand the research topic better so as to give thorough answers to research questions, find new ones and make changes in consequent research designs (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2011).

Data Collection

The data collection methods chosen for this dissertation are personal interviews of current teachers and students who are a part of the accounting course which comes under qualitative methods and surveys of former students who took accounting as their major which comes under quantitative methods.

To collect data from the participants using qualitative data collection methods, in-depth interviews are taken with open-ended questions so that the participants give descriptive answers regarding the research taking place. Since qualitative research approach is focused on small groups, it provides a broader understanding of behavior and therefore sufficient relevant information about actual people and their circumstances (De Vaus, 2014, Leedy and Ormrod, 2013).

For the purpose of this dissertation, personal interviews of the faculty members teaching accountancy as well as students who have taken accountancy as their course will be conducted in two universities of Dubai namely, Heriot-Watt University and Middlesex University. Through these interviews, it will be found out whether the changes in technology are being incorporated in the accounting education and preparing the students to face the outside world. The main reason behind conducting an interview is to help participants share their views and experiences regarding the topic of the dissertation being done by the interviewer (Boeije, 2009).

Another method used to collect data from the participants would be using quantitative methods. Likert Scale survey would be the most suitable method to examine the perception and attitudes of former students who majored in accounting in Heriot-Watt University Dubai and Middlesex University Dubai and are currently working in the accounting field towards, whether the education received in university equipped them to be work ready once they graduate in respect to the changes in technology. Survey method of data collection includes a questionnaire prepared by the researcher and as the graduates will be spread out throughout the world, they can access and return it through post or mail which will make the data processing and analyzing easier and cheaper (Fowler, 2002).

The third method used to collect data for this dissertation will be content analysis. It is one of the many qualitative methods used to analyze and interpret data which has an objective and systematic way of describing it. To undertake this, the contents of the textbooks and the course outline of accounting subjects of Heriot-Watt University and Middlesex University to examine whether they are incorporating the changes taking place in the technological world in the accounting education of their university and preparing their students in order to face the corporate world (Schreier, 2012).

Knowing the advantages and disadvantages of using both qualitative and quantitative data, the researcher has the benefit of combining or integrating strategies from both the types of data and using the basic principle of mixed research. This principle states that researchers should gather data using varying approaches, strategies, and methods such that the consequent combination is likely to result in corresponding strengths and noncoinciding drawbacks (Brewer and Hunter, 1989; Johnson and Turner, 2003).

Data Analysis

The data analysis method chosen for this dissertation is thematic analysis for the qualitative data collected. It is the most extensively used approach to analyze interviews and other types of qualitative data. The theoretical positions of Braun and Clarke (2006) will be the basis of the conceptual framework for this dissertation.

Thematic analysis is considered as a method unlike other qualitative approaches which are considered as methodologies. This means that, from a learning and teaching perspective, it is regarded as a very flexible method of analysis as it is not bounded by a specific theoretical or epistemological aspect (Braun and Clarke, 2006; Clarke and Braun, 2013).

The research question for this dissertation involves examining the perceptions of teachers as well as current and former students through their experiences and opinions. Therefore, the interview questions, its execution, and the analysis carried out were all based on that. There are two types of thematic data analysis, one which is based on the research question called as top-down or theoretical thematic analysis and the other which is done based on the data collected known as bottom-up or inductive thematic analysis. This dissertation relates to the former one more than the latter.

The analysis of the data collected through interviews with current students who are studying accounting, former students who studied accounting and are now working in the accounting sector as well as professors teaching accountancy in both the universities taken will be conducted in three steps that are, data preparation for analysis through transcribing, using the process of coding to divide the data into themes and data representation (Creswell, 2012; Miles and Huberman, 1994).

The purpose of conducting a thematic analysis is to classify themes, i.e., patterns in the data that are found out by a thorough process of familiarizing of data, coding of data, development of themes and a subsequent review, that are relevant and use these themes to analyze the data and further conduct the research to know whether universities are actually adopting the changes in technology in their accounting courses to better prepare their students. This analysis not only summarizes the data but interprets it and makes it relevant and useful (Braun and Clarke, 2006).

The quantitative data collected using the survey method of data collection from the former graduates of accounting who are currently working in the field of accounting will be analyzed through statistical package for social science (SPSS) or through Microsoft Excel since the data collected can be measured quantitatively. These programmes cover a wide range of formulas to perform statistical calculations and can help to find out the percentage of participants taking the survey who think whether the universities are incorporating the changes taking place in the technology in their courses of accounting or not. These methods are also time effective as most of the analysis can be done through the auto calculations performed by the programmes (Connolly, 2007; Gorard, 2001).

Ethical Issues

Any type of research faces ethical issues. The process of doing research acts as a hindrance between the aim of the research to follow ethical guidelines and maintaining the right to privacy of the participants. Ethics are concerned with doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong and harmful which can be achieved through following appropriate ethical principles. Therefore, it is crucial to protect the participants of the research (Orb, Eisenhauer and Wynaden, 2001).

The first ethical principle to follow while taking the interviews and surveys would be informed consent, which means striking a balance between under-informing and over-informing (Kvale, 1996). It also implies that the students and teachers involved have the right to be autonomous and willingly participate or refuse to be a part of the study. Consent is an agreement to trust and it needs to be continuously renegotiated while conducting the interviews as well as the surveys. A balanced relationship between the researcher and the teachers and students participating in the study will promote trust, disclosure, and knowledge of possible ethical issues (Morse and Field, 1992)

The second ethical principle to follow is that of privacy which implies that the personal information released in the interviews and the surveys by the teachers as well as the students should not be disclosed or if necessary, should be disclosed after taking their consent (Munhall, 1988).

Another ethical principle is of beneficence which means that the research should aim to do good and prevent harm. This implies that if the students or the teachers are uncomfortable to participate in the study or unable to answer some of the questions asked then they have the freedom of choice to deny. It also means that if the participants do not want to disclose their names or their identity, it is the researcher’s moral obligation to oblige and preferably use pseudonyms (Lavrakas, 2008).

The researcher also should ensure that all the relevant information related to the survey and interview being conducted should be told to the students and the teachers in order ensure complete transparency (DiCicco-Bloom and Crabtree, 2006).

Structure

The final structure of the thesis is as follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction to Topic

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Chapter 3: Methodology

Chapter 4: Data Collection and Analysis

Chapter 5: Results and Conclusion

The structure of this dissertation begins with a brief explanation on Research Aims and Objectives followed by a detailed study on the Potential Impacts on various parties. Next, there is a research on Literature Review which reflects about the theories in the respective field. The next chapter of the dissertation explains the Theoretical Framework that represents the ideologies of the students regarding the technology in UAE. The next part of the dissertation is about the Research Methodologies which explains the paradigms used which subsequently leads to the Data Collection and the Data Analysis. Finally, a precise information is given on the Ethical Issues that should be considered during Research.

Research Timeline

References

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