Reader's Response: Describing and Analyzing Quantitative Data

The work of Harris and Martin (2012) on student motivations for choosing to complete online courses provides information on an important area of development within post-secondary education. As noted by the authors, online learning is an expanding field and learning more about why students choose online courses and their experiences in such courses is critical to the development of online courses. The researchers had a sizable dataset (n = 644) and I looked forward to reading the results produced by such a large sample, but as a reader there were times when I was confused by the results. I think it is worth highlighting this confusion so that scholars publishing in ["International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning"] "IJ-SoTL" can reflect on how to present quantitative data in ways that remain clear to all readers.