Republic of the Philippines

E A S T E R N V I S AY A S S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y
Tacloban City

GRADUATE SCHOOL

(Educ502 | PRM 502_Methods of research)

Written Report on
Quasi-Experimental Research
Submitted by:
Raymund Parcon Mativo
MAED-GC

Submitted to:
DR. JOVITO B. MADEJA
Research Professor

July 23,2023

I. Introduction:

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 According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the word quasi is “used to show that
something is almost, but not completely, the thing described.” And as the name suggests,
quasi-experiments are almost experiments because of the way they are conducted. What
differentiates this type of experiment from true experimental research is the way the
subjects are divided. Experimental deals with cause-and-effect relationships. It uses two
sets of variables. Quasi-experimental study designs, often described as nonrandomized,
pre-post intervention studies. “Creswell states that quasi-experiment is experimental
situations in which the researcher assigns, but not randomly, participants to groups because the
experimenter cannot artificially create groups for the experiment.” The quasi-experimental
design, like true experiments, aims to identify the causal relationship between an
independent and dependent variable. Nonetheless, unlike true experiments, quasi-
experimental studies employ non-random criteria while assigning subjects to groups.
The reason for this could be a practicality issue or ethical rules, as you cannot
deliberately deprive someone of treatment or give them intentional harm.
In this paper, the reporter quest to explain the definition of quasi-experimental
research design and review the difference between quasi-experimental and true
experimental research.

II. Objectives:

On completion of this topic, you will be prepared to:

1. To explain what quasi-experimental research is and distinguish it from True

Experimental Research.
2. To describe the types of quasi-experimental research designs.

III. Discussion:

What is a Quasi-Experimental Research?

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 The prefix quasi means “resembling.” Thus, quasi-experimental research is
research that resembles experimental research but is not true experimental research.
Although the independent variable is manipulated, participants are not randomly
assigned to conditions or orders of conditions (Cook & Campbell, 1979).

The field settings in which some assignments are difficult or impossible are the
situations that are mostly conducted by the quasi-experiments. “They are often conducted
to evaluate the effectiveness of a treatment—perhaps a type of psychotherapy or an educational
intervention.” Quasi-experimental design, is somewhat like true experiments, aims to
identify the fundamental relationship between an independent and dependent variable.
However, quasi-experiments utilize non-random criteria while assigning subjects to
groups. “When individuals are not randomly assigned, the procedure is called a quasi-
experiment. When individuals can be randomly assigned to groups, the procedure is called a true
experiment.”

Example of True experimental design to run a true experiment, you randomly

assign half the patients in a mental health clinic to receive the new treatment. The other
half—the control group—receives the standard course of treatment for depression.
Every few months, patients fill out a sheet describing their symptoms to see if the new
treatment produces significantly better (or worse) effects than the standard one.
Example of Quasi-experimental design you to discover that a few of the
psychotherapists in the clinic have decided to try out the new therapy, while others
who treat similar patients have chosen to stick with the normal protocol. You can use
these pre-existing groups to study the symptom progression of the patients treated with
the new therapy versus those receiving the standard course of treatment. Although the
groups were not randomly assigned, if you properly account for any systematic
differences between them, you can be reasonably confident any differences must arise
from the treatment and no other confounding variables.

There are several common differences between true and quasi-experimental

designs.
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 True experimental design Quasi-experimental design

Assignment to The researcher randomly Some other, non-random method is used

treatment assigns subjects to control to assign subjects to groups.
and treatment groups.

Control over The researcher The researcher often does not have

treatment usually designs the control over the treatment, but instead
treatment. studies pre-existing groups that received
different treatments after the fact.

Use of control Requires the use of control Control groups are not required
groups and treatment groups. (although they are commonly used).

There are different types of quasi-experiments, but the reporter will discuss just a few of
the most common ones here.

TYPES OF QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

1. Nonequivalent Groups Design

This is not considered as random because this type of quasi-experimental, the

researcher is working with the pre-existing groups, and they are not allocating the
subject to either group based on the randomized assignment. In this design the
researcher selects two groups, one is exposed to treatment while the other is not.
“Although researchers aim to select two groups that are as similar as possible, we can never be
sure that the groups are comparable. It is highly unlikely that the two groups would be as
comparable as they would have been if they were created using random assignment. This design

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 was named as the  nonequivalent groups design for this very reason, as it’s likely that the two
groups are not equivalent.” For example, a researcher wants to evaluate the new technique
of teaching fractions to grade 7 class. The first one would be to conduct the study with a
treatment group consisting of one class of grade 7 students and the second one which
are the control group consisting of another class of grade 7. This would be a
nonequivalent groups design because the students are not randomly assigned to classes
by the researcher, which means there could be important differences between them.

2. Interrupted Time-Series Design

A variant of the pretest-posttest design is the interrupted time-series design. A time

series is a set of measurements taken at intervals over a period. For example, a
manufacturing company might measure its workers’ productivity each week for a year.
In an interrupted time, series-design, a time series like this is “interrupted” by a
treatment. In one classic example, the treatment was the reduction of the work shifts in
a factory from 10 hours to 8 hours (Cook & Campbell, 1979). Interrupted time series
analysis, sometimes known as quasi-experimental time series analysis, is a method of
statistical analysis involving tracking a long-term period before and after a point of
intervention to assess the intervention's effects. “An interrupted time series (ITS) design
involves  collecting data consistently before and after an interruption. This means introducing
and withdrawing your digital product or service, or some part of it, and then seeing if anything
changes in the outcome you're assessing (Ewusie and others (2020)).” For example, in
interrupted time series studies in digital health, the researcher assessed whether the
coronavirus outbreak influenced the downloads of a smoking cessation app. “In the
United Kingdom, between January 1, 2020, and March 31, 2020, and between January 1, 2019,
and March 31, 2020, there was no evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak has been associated
with a large step change or increasing trend in downloads of a popular smoking cessation app.
Findings on the association of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak with a small step change or increasing
trend were inconclusive.”

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 References:
John W. Creswell, Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and
Qualitative Research, New Jersey: Pearson Education Ltd., 2008,

Cook, T. D., & Campbell, D. T. (1979). Quasi-experimentation: Design & analysis issues in

field settings. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin

Creswell, John W., Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches /
John W. Creswell. — 4th ed.

Eysenck, H. J. (1952). The effects of psychotherapy: An evaluation. Journal of Consulting

Psychology, 16, 319–324

Perski and others (2020), Influence of the SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak on the Uptake of a Popular
Smoking Cessation App in UK Smokers: Interrupted Time Series Analysis.

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