Identify and investigate issues involving numerical data collected from primary and secondary sources (VCMSP268)
LO: To identify and investigate issues involving numerical data collected from primary and secondary sources.
Know:
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What is primary and secondary data.
Understand:
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That data can be used to paint the story of the bigger picture and sometimes does contain bias.
Do:
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I can interpret and investigate primary and secondary data.
Advantages of Primary Data
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Surveys are generally easy to do. All you need to do is ask.
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Usually based on unbiased information (if asking the questions correctly).
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Data is directly straight from the source.
Disadvantages of Primary Data
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Could be time consuming because running around and asking questions/surveying everyone takes a lot of time and energy.
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The data collected still needs to be interpreted.
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Methodology could be flawed. Eg.) sampling could lead to different than “real world” results.
Advantages of Secondary Data
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Quickly find data that you don’t have to survey yourself. You can grab data from someone else who has done the hard work of collecting data.
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Saves money so you don’t have to spend money, time energy and effort to collect data again when it’s already been collected.
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Spend more time analysing the data than collecting it.
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Can look at data over a long period of time.
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Can get data from specialized personnel. (People who are paid to collect data)
Disadvantages of Secondary Data
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Data might not be reliable, since you didn’t do the survey yourself.
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No control over who was surveyed.
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Serious-ness of the data is lost.
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Need to analyse the data yourself.
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Data collected could also be flawed. eg.) a survey asked what colours do you not like vs. what is your favourite colour?
