Instrumen Penelitian Part. 2

Dalam analisa data yang menggunakan statistik pengukuran adalah hal yang sangat penting karena merupakan sumber angka-angka yang dipakai dalam analisa statistik, disamping sebagai pedoman dalam penentuan teknik analisis statistik yang dapat dipergunakan. Secara umum pengukuran diartikan sebagai proses membedakan sesuatu (The process by which things are differentiated), sedang secara operasional, Pengukuran adalah penerapan aturan bilangan pada obyek atau fenomena tertentu, dalam suatu penelitian Kuantitatif pengukuran dikenakan pada variabel yang kita teliti. Dengan kata lain pengukuran bermakna menandai nilai-nilai suatu variabel dengan tanda bilangan tertentu secara sistematis.

Memang diakui bahwa apabila hasil suatu pengukuran dapat dikuantifikasikan serta dinyatakan dalam bentuk angka, ambiguitas bahasa akan sangat berkurang (seperti “saya tinggi” dengan “Saya 1,62 cm tinggi), namun demikian dalam proses pengukuran tidak selamanya harus menggunakan penandaan dalam bentuk angka (Kuantifikasi), yang penting tergambar suatu perbedaan posisi yang satu dengan yang lain dalam suatu kontinum nilai. ketentuan penerapan nilai suatu variabel dengan tanda bilangan atau lambang disebut skala (Levels of Measurement). Dalam hubungan ini terdapat beberapa skala pengukuran (Terkadang disebut jenis data atau tipe variabel berdasarkan tingkat pengukuran) yang perlu dipahami oleh seorang peneliti

Skala Nominal. Adalah skala yang hanya mendasarkan pada pengelompokan atau pengkategorian peristiwa atau fakta dan apabila menggunakan notasi angka hal itu sama sekali tidak menunjukan perbedaan kuantitatif melainkan hanya menunjukan perbedaan kualitatif. Banyak variabel dalam penelitian sosial menggunakan skala nominal seperti Agama, Jenis kelamin, Tempat lahir, asal sekolah dsb. Adapun ciri dari skala nominal adalah : (1) kategori data bersifat mutually exclusive (saling memisah), (2) Kategori data tidak mempunyai aturan yang logis (bisa sembarang).

Skala Ordinal. Adalah pengukuran dimana skala yang dipergunakan disusun secara terurut dari yang rendah sampai yang tinggi menurut suatu ciri tertentu, namun antara urutan (ranking) yang satu dengan yang lainnya tidak mempunyai jarak yang sama, skala ordinal banyak dipergunakan dalam penelitian sosial dan pendidikan terutama berkaitan dengan pengukuran kepentingan, persepsi, motivasi serta sikap, apabila mengukur sikap responden terhadap suatu Kebijakan pendidikan , responden dapat diurutkan dari mulai Sangat setuju (1), Setuju (2), Tidak berpendapat (3), Kurang Setuju (4), dan Tidak setuju (5), maka angka-angka tersebut hanya sekedar menunjukan urutan responden, bukan nilai untuk variabel tersebut. Adapun ciri dari skala ordinal adalah : (1) kategori data bersifat saling memisah, (2) kkategori data mempunyai aturan yang logis, (3) kategori data ditentukan skalanya berdasarkan jumlah karakteristik khusus yang dimilikinya.

Skala Interval. Adalah skala pengukuran dimana jarak satu tingkat dengan tingkat lainnya sama, oleh karena itu skala interval dapat juga disebut skala unit yang sama (equal unit scale), contoh yang sangat dikenal adalah temperatur. Adapun ciri-ciri skala interval adalah : (1) kategori data bersifat saling memisah, (2) kategori data mempunyai aturan yang logis, (3) kategori data ditentukan skalanya berdasarkan jumlah karakteristik khusus yang dimilikinya, (4) perbedaan karakteristik yang sama tergambar dalam perbedaan yang sama dalam jumlah yang dikenakan pada kategori, (5) angka nol hanya menggambarkan suatu titik dalam skala (tidak punya nilai Nol absolut).

Skala Rasio. Skala interval yang benar-benar memiliki nilai nol mutlak disebut skala rasio, dengan demikian skala rasio menunjukan jenis pengukuran yang sangat jelas dan akurat (precise). Jika kita memiliki skala rasio, kita dapat menyatakan tidak hanya jarak yang sama antara satu nilai dengan nilai lainnya dalam skala, tapi juga tentang jumlah proporsional karakteristik yang dimiliki dua obyek atau lebih, dan contoh untuk skala ini adalah uang. Adapun ciri-ciri dari skala rasio adalah : (1) kategori data bersifat saling memisah, (2) kategori data mempunyai aturan yang logis, (3) kategori data ditentukan skalanya berdasarkan jumlah karakteristik khusus yang dimilikinya, (4) perbedaan karakteristik yang sama tergambar dalam perbedaan yang sama dalam jumlah yang dikenakan pada kategori, (5) angka nol menggambarkan suatu titik dalam skala yang menunjukan ketiadaan karakteristik (punya nilai Nol absolut).

Bagi seorang peneliti pemahaman secara tepat tentang skala pengukuran sangat penting karena dua alasan : Pertama, tiap skala pengukuran memberikan jumlah informamsi yang berbeda, skala rasio memberi informasi lebih banyak dibanding interval, interval lebih banyak dibanding ordinal, dan ordinal memberi informasi lebih banyak dibanding skala pengukuran nominal, oleh karena itu, jika memungkinkan peneliti sebaiknya menggunakan skala pengukuran yang dapat memberikan informasi paling maksimum yang diperlukan untuk menjawab permasalahan penelitian. Kedua, beberapa jenis prosedur analisa statistik tidak tepat untuk dipergunakan pada skala pengukuran yang berbeda, untuk itu kejelasan penentuan skala pengukuran akan menentukan jenis analisis statistik yang bagaimana yang akan dipergunakan.

Instrumen Penelitian Part. 1

Ilmu Pendidikan berkomunikasi dengan realitas melalui konsep-konsep, sehingga apabila konsep, baik tunggal maupun yang berhubungan, mau diteliti maka diperlukan operasionalisasi agar konsep/variabel yang menjadi fokus perhatian dapat diamati dan diobservasi, sesuatu yang dapat diobservasi, baik secara langsung ataupun tidak langsung, juga bermakna dapat diukur (Measurable), oleh karena itu pengukuran menjadi penting dalam kaitannya dengan penelitian khususnya penelitian kuantitatif.

Pengukuran tidak bisa dilakukan secara sembarangan, sebab memerlukan keterkaitan/keselarasan antara konsep dengan pelaksanaan penelitian serta kehati-hatian terhadap kesalahan pengukuran (Measurement error) yang dapat menjadi ancaman bagi keabsahan suatu penelitian. Dalam suatu penelitian sosial, menurut Sofian Effendi, proses pengukuran adalah rangkaian dari empat aktivitas, yakni :

1. menentukan dimensi konsep penelitian

2. rumusan ukuran untuk masing-masing dimensi (pertanyaan- pertanyaan yang relevan dengan dimensi)

3. tentukan tingkat ukuran yang akan digunakan (Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, Rasio)

4. tentukan tingkat kesahihan dan keajegan dari alat pengukur

secara sederhana dapat juga dikatakan bahwa untuk melakukan pengukuran, maka peneliti perlu menentukan konsep/variabel yang akan diteliti, menentukan indikator-indikator dari variabel tersebut, menentukan item-item untuk pengukuran sesuai dengan indikator masing-masing, dan kemudian melakukan pengujian atas kesahihan (validitas) dan keajegan (reliabilitas) alat ukur tersebut (Instrumen Penelitian).

Meskipun seorang peneliti berusaha secermat mungkin, namun terjadinya kesalahan dalam pengukuran masih mungkin, sehingga diperlukan pemahaman tentang kesalahan-kesalahan yang mungkin terjadi dalam pengukuran. Terdapat dua tipe kesalahan dalam pengukuran yaitu Random error yakni ketidak ajegan (unreliability) pengukuran dimana pengulangan pengukuran menghasilkan hasil yang berbeda, hal ini terjadi apabila pengacakan sampel kurang representatif atau karena ukuran sampel yang terlalu kecil dan Non-random error yakni ketidak validan (invalidity) atau bias dalam pengukuran dimana instrumen pengukuran tidak mengukur apa yang seharusnya diukur. Penelitian yang baik adalah penelitian yang menggunakan pengukuran dengan menghilangkan atau paling tidak mengurangi kedua tipe kesalahan tersebut.

Information Systems

In a general sense, the term information system (IS) refers to a system of persons, data records and activities that process the data and information in an organization, and it includes the organization's manual and automated processes. In a narrow sense, the term information system (or computer-based information system) refers to the specific application software that is used to store data records in a computer system and automates some of the information-processing activities of the organization. Computer-based information systems are in the field of information technology. The discipline of Business process modelling describes the business processes supported by information systems.

The term "information system" has different meanings:

• In computer security, an information system is described by the following components (Aceituno, 2004):
  • Structure:
    • Repositories, which hold data permanently or temporarily, such as buffers, RAM, hard disks, cache, etc. Usually, a computer-based information system involves a Information processor
    • Interfaces, which exchange information with the non-digital world, such as keyboards, speakers, scanners, printers, etc.
  • Channels, which connect repositories, such as buses, cables, wireless links, etc. A Network is a set of logical or physical: an introduction to informatics in Organisations.
• The common view of an information system is that of an Information processor, that involves Input-Process-Output.

The study of information systems originated as a sub-discipline of computer science in an attempt to understand and rationalize the management of technology within organizations. It has matured into a major field of management, that is increasingly being emphasized as an important area of research in management studies, and is taught at all major universities and business schools in the world. Börje Langefors introduced the concept of "Information Systems" at the third International Conference on Information Processing and Computer Science in New York in 1965.

Information technology is a very important malleable resource available to executives.[3] Many companies have created a position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) that sits on the executive board with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Technical Officer (CTO).The CTO may also serve as CIO, and vice versa. The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), which focuses on information security within an organization, normally reports to the CIO.

Information Systems has a number of different areas of work:

• Information Systems Strategy
• Information Systems Management
• Information Systems Development

Each of which branches out into a number of sub disciplines, that overlap with other science and managerial disciplines such as computer science, pure and engineering sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and business management.

There are a wide variety of career paths in the information systems discipline. "Workers with specialized technical knowledge and strong communications skills will have the best prospects. People with management skills and an understanding of business practices and principles will have excellent opportunities, as companies are increasingly looking to technology to drive their revenue."

Public Relations

Course Description:

This course will provide candidates with an introduction to the study of public relations: the profession, the process, the publics and the practice. Students will learn how public relations operates in organizations as well as about its impact on publics and its functions in society.

The profession of public relations continues to emerge as a major force in the global society. The practice of public relations has undergone evolutionary changes in the past few years to Internet – driven technology. This major source provides, for the first time, a way for organizations to communicate directly with a variety of audiences, often through the world, instantly. Globalization of world wide markets and organizational restructuring are two more powerful influences on the practice of public relations.

These critical changes in globalization, technology and organizational structure lend increasing importance to the management function of public relations. Practitioners are no longer mere technicians who shape and transmit messages from their organizations. They are professionals who shape the relationships an organization has with its various constituencies. Public relation practitioners must possess the communications expertise and social sensitivity necessary to enable organizations to adapt to the changing environment.

So, the public relation practitioners must bring not only all of the traditional communication skills to their broadened role, bit they must bring the ability to research and understand problems, to plan public relations programs, to create effective messages using the latest technologies, and evaluate the effectiveness of these programs. The goals of this course is to provide the tools for public relation practice while also establishing a historical context, a theoretical foundation, and legal and ethical frameworks for the profession

This course provides a foundation for those planning public relations careers as well as very valuable knowledge for those planning to continue their career in organizational communication and effective media strategies.

Another very important purpose of this course is to learn how to write for public relations, because after all, the basic form of communications is still the written word. All forms of writing for public relations have one thing in common: they should be written well. As to purpose, a public elations piece generally is product for one of two reasons: to inform or to persuade. The medium which is chose to delivery the messages will also dictate style and format, but all public relation s wring attempts to establish positive relations between an organization and its various publics, usually through image building techniques

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course candidates will be able to:

• Define public relations
• Describe public relations principles and practices
• Identify an organization’s key publics or target audiences
• Describe and apply the public relations process
• Solve public relations problems within an ethical and legal context
• Describe various contexts for public relations
• Why good writing is important to public relations professional
• The most often –used tools of public relations writing and how they differ
• The process of public relation writing

Mass Media

Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. It was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines, although mass media (like books and manuscripts) were present centuries before the term became common. The term public media has a similar meaning: it is the sum of the public mass distributors of news and entertainment across media such as newspapers, television, radio, broadcasting, which may require union membership in some large markets such as Newspaper Guild, AFTRA, & text publishers. The concept of mass media is complicated in some internet media as now individuals have a means of potential exposure on a scale comparable to what was previously restricted to select group of mass media producers. These internet media can include:

• television
• personal web pages
• message boards
• podcasts
• blogs and
• video hosting services.

The communications audience has been viewed by some commentators as forming a mass society with special characteristics, notably atomization or lack of social connections, which render it especially susceptible to the influence of modern mass-media techniques such as advertising and propaganda. The term "MSM" or "mainstream media" has been widely used in the blogosphere in discussion of the mass media and media bias.

Types of drama in numerous cultures were probably the first mass-media, going back into the Ancient World. The first dated printed book known is the "Diamond Sutra", printed in China in 868 AD, although it is clear that books were printed earlier. Movable clay type was invented in 1041 in China. However, due to the slow spread of literacy to the masses in China, and the relatively high cost of paper there, the earliest printed mass-medium was probably European popular prints from about 1400. Although these were produced in huge numbers, very few early examples survive, and even most known to be printed before about 1600 have not survived. Johannes Gutenberg printed the first book on a printing press with movable type in 1453. This invention transformed the way the world received printed materials, although books remained too expensive really to be called a mass-medium for at least a century after that. Newspapers developed around from 1612, with the first example in English in 1620 [1] ; but they took until the nineteenth century to reach a mass-audience directly. During the 20th century, the growth of mass media was driven by technology that allowed the massive duplication of material. Physical duplication technologies such as printing, record pressing and film duplication allowed the duplication of books, newspapers and movies at low prices to huge audiences. Radio and television allowed the electronic duplication of information for the first time. Mass media had the economics of linear replication: a single work could make money proportional to the number of copies sold, and as volumes went up, units costs went down, increasing profit margins further. Vast fortunes were to be made in mass media. In a democratic society, independent media serve to educate the public/electorate about issues regarding government and corporate entities (see Media influence). Some consider the concentration of media ownership to be a grave threat to democracy.