Steve Tippins explains that without a control group, your study is quasi-experimental, not experimental. Be transparent with your committee about which you're doing. Practical constraints like data access and timeline matter more than forcing a design that won't work.
One thing you see many times in a true experiment is a control group, meaning I'm going to give a treatment to one group and a not a treatment to another group. Well, if you can't have a control group, you're not doing an experimental design. It's probably quasi-experimental. It's just be clear up front. Committees approve quasi-experimental designs all the time. Just be clear up front with what you're doing and know what you're going to be able to do because we don't want you getting committee approval, spending months trying to do this, and now having to go back to the committee, get it reapproved, potentially back through the IRB, and wasting lots of time and money. Which is why when I'm talking to people, one of the questions I ask right up front is, is this doable? Can you get access to this data? Will this design actually allow you to do your study, answer your questions in a reasonable time period? Drop the word help in the comments below, and I'll send you the link to my free dissertation help community.
