Benefits of Quasi-Experimental Design

• In fields such as social science, where pre-selection of groups can be challenging, quasi-experimental designs are useful in achieving results to identify general trends. For example, a researcher may want to know the impact of consuming alcohol on expectant mothers. They would choose a group of people and ask them how much alcohol they consumed, then put them in groups.
• Quasi-experimental designs do not require pre-screening and randomization, so they save on the time and resources that would have been used to conduct these activities.
• Quasi-experimental designs are easier to set up than experimental designs because randomization is practically impossible.
• The findings of a quasi-experimental design can be applied in other settings hence allowing researchers to make conclusions about a certain population.

When to use a quasi-experimental design

• When the study is not ethical, but the researcher wants to know the cause-and-effect relationship of the variables. For example, it would be unethical to research the effects of COVID-19 by choosing random people to infect with the virus.
• A researcher can use this design when it is difficult or impossible for variables to be assigned at random. For example, evaluating the effects of a situation such as a war or national disaster.
• Researchers can also use quasi-experimental designs where the time and resources are limited and doing a real experiment would be costly.