Research Goals

The process of systematic mapping of literature has four goals:

1. To examine the extent, range and nature of research activity;
2. To determine the value of undertaking a full systematic review;
3. To summarize and disseminate research findings; and
4. To identify research gaps in the existing literature (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005).

Example Research Questions

The typical overarching research question for a systematic mapping study with an example topic in italics is:

What do we know about ungrading assessment practices in higher education?

Sub-questions include:

• What research questions regarding ungrading assessment practices in higher education are being addressed in scholarly literature?
• What areas in ungrading assessment practices in higher education require more research?
• What original research exists addressing ungrading assessment practices in higher education? What evidence is presented?
• What are existing methodological approaches that study ungrading assessment practices in higher education and how can these studies be classified?
• In which sources and in which years were approaches regarding ungrading assessment practices in higher education published?

Research Questions Activity