-A plan or protocol for carrying out the study

-An underlying scheme that governs functioning, developing, or unfolding

The design makes clear what information is being gathered (Example: student perception by means of fixed interview procedure in focus groups) or is being measured (Example: student learning by means of 3 exams).

The design also makes clear what, if anything, is being manipulated. (Example: the study is designed so that some students attend review sessions before each exam while others do not.)

The nature and frequency of measurement and manipulation are made clear along with factors that the investigator is attempting to take into account because they may explain the result even though they are not the focus of the study. (Examples of such factors are students’ class attendance or backgrounds.)

A good design always promotes efficient and successful gathering and analysis of the needed information.

The design should include a timetable for significant milestones, specification of measures to be used in acquiring information, and provision for obtaining needed resources (Example of milestone: institutional approval to use your students as subjects. Two examples of needed resources: grade distributions of students in the target course over the last several years; a colleague to conduct interviews of your students.)

It may be necessary to modify the design as work progresses. In general, the greater the degree of qualitative information gathering, the more likely is modification in the design as the study progresses. It’s important that any design modification be the result of careful consideration rather than something that just happens in the course of events without the implications for the goals of the project having been thought through.