This paper explores a simple quasi-static approach to the study of conformational changes in polymers in condensed phases. Essentially, a conformational change is driven in steps by a forcing potential and the change in energy of the system is monitored as the transition path is followed. The technique is of interest since it has the potential of yielding the distribution of activation energies for processes which occur on time scales too long for study by molecular dynamic (MD) techniques. In order to test its validity, however, we have applied it to the study of the rotation of the ester methyl group in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and compared its predictions with those of direct molecular dynamics simulations and experimental quasi-elastic neutron scattering data. Since the experimental data were analyzed in terms of a Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts (KWW) correlation function, the simulation data are analyzed in terms of fitted KWW tau and beta values. We find that the quasi-static approach yields Values of beta similar to those obtained from the molecular dynamics data and also to the experimentally observed values. Activation energies, deduced from the temperature dependence of the fitted tau values, are also in reasonable agreement for the two different simulation methods. The simulated mean energies do not agree with the most recent analysis of the quasi-elastic neutron scattering data, but they are in agreement with earlier analyses and with the observed values for similar systems such as poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME). We therefore conclude that the quasi-static technique is valid and can confidently be applied to the study of slower motions in other systems such as the motion of the alpha methyl group in PMMA, which is inaccessible by MD techniques.