Introductions, Course Outline, Conducting Action Research (Standard 1)

Schedule

• Explore all of the links on the course home page and get comfortable with them
• Complete 2 tasks needed to begin course
• Complete the Pretest (using WebCT).
• Begin studying the basic structure of publications, vocabulary, and concepts so that you will be able to talk about these words and concepts in future assignments. 

Selection of Research Topic, Research Focus, Problem Focus, Research Design (Standards 1, 2, 3, 5, 6)

Find empirical AND refereed/peer reviewed journal articles

• Identify potential research topics
• Visit the library and collect empirical/refereed articles on that topic so you can decide if you want to pursue it.
• Read all of the content from lessons 1, 2, & 3 this week. There is no additional chapter reading, so be sure to take your time and really try to grasp those concepts covered in the scavenger hunt. 
• Post your completed scavenger hunt in the threaded discussion in WebCT.

Focus and justify research topic

Continue to find and organize empirical/refereed journal articles

Writing a Literature Review (Standard 1)

Writing the research question(s) (Standard 1)

• Continue to think about your topic of interest. Check your ideas against the unsuitable topics criteria provided here to make sure you are on track.
• Continue to collect empirical/refereed journal articles on your area(s) of interest. It is important to collect these articles now so that you will have time to read them finalize your research questions based on a rationale developed from those articles. You should have collected 5 articles on your topic by next week.
• Check your answers by comparing what you found in your scavenger hunt to what your peers found. Post reply's to at least 3 peers in WebCT discussing any discrepancies or disagreements between what you found. 
•  Continue using the 13 scavenger hunt concepts by applying them to one of the articles you have collect thus far. Post your completed scavenger hunt for your own article in the threaded discussion in WebCT

4/ February 10

Report of Topic, Focus, and Design (Standards 1, 2, 3, 5, 6)

Writing the Conceptual Framework (Standard 6)

Writing the Literature Review

• Finish up the rough draft of your Chapter 2 and turn in next week.
• Read peers' posts to the threaded discussion from last week and reply to at least 3 peers.
• Choose one of the 5 articles you have identified. Write a 350 word abstract for this article. Also, write a critique using the guiding questions provided. Finally, add an additional paragraph on how this study you review will assist you in validating and supporting your research problem (does it provide justification? identify deficiencies or shortcomings? support a major theme?). Be sure to complete the tasks in Lesson 3 before you post your document in the WebCT dropbox

5/ February 17

Literature review reports

• Group Reports, first draft due next week.
• The following scoring rubric will be used:
  Chapter 2 Scoring Rubric (Word)
• Continue working on your literature map.
• As you continue to identify, read, and analyze empirical research, use the guiding questions to try to group the studies according to subtopics, similarities, differences, etc. You may want to make notes about the major results or findings so that similarities and difference can be identified easily or highlight portions of each article that make suggestions for future research. 
• Tie in your conceptual framework to your literature review.

6/ February 24

Reliability and Validity

Apply appropriate criteria to assess the relevance of the empirical articles you find

Write a annotated bibliography of those articles you have collected

Begin thinking about possible research designs you might use

• Annotated bibliography. Submit this assignment in the drop box in WebCT which is due .
• Continue collecting articles on your topic (or on a new topic if you've changed your mind). You should aim to collect several articles each week.
• Choose 2 of the 5 case studies and write informed opinions based on the questions asked.  Submit your opinion to the threaded discussion identified for that case study. 
  • Case Study 1: Determining the Validity of Self-Reports
  • Case Study 2: Evaluating an Acculturation Scale
  • Case Study 3: Measuring Students' Distant Memories
  • Case Study 4: Measuring Social Desirability
  • Case Study 5: Measuring the Attractiveness of Participants
• ***Reminder***Your final draft of Chapter 2 is due this week.
• Start writing Chapter 1 (Introduction). The following scoring rubric will be used:
  Chapter 1 Scoring Rubric (Word)

Purpose, Questions, & Hypotheses

Dependent Variables in Research

Scales of Measurement

• Read the following passage about hypothesis: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/hypothes.htm
• Open and read this short explanation of hypotheses and research questions and a focus on the null hypothesis from Patten (1997).  You may download it in Word or RTF format. There are short exercises with answers provided to check your comprehension. We will talk more about some of these in future weeks.
• Open and read these short explanations of variables in non-experimental and experimental research from Patten (1997).  You may download it in Word or RTF format. There are short exercises with answers provided to check your comprehension.
• Open and read this short 2 page explanation of the four scales of measurement from Patten (1997).  You may download it in Word or RTF format. There is a short exercise with answers provided to check your comprehension.
• **Reminder***Your Chapter 1 is due next week.

Sampling

Operational Definitions

Inter-rater reliability in Single Case Designs

• Choose 2 of the 5 case studies and write informed opinions based on the questions asked.  Submit your opinion to the threaded discussion identified for that case study.
  • Case Study 1: Sampling Hispanic Adults by Telephone
  • Case Study 2: Using a Sample of Convenience
  • Case Study 3: Using Quota Sampling
  • Case Study 4: Using an Incentive to Increase Response Rate
  • Case Study 5: Obtaining a Sample of Psychotherapy Clients
• Choose 2 of the 5 case studies and write informed opinions based on the questions asked.  Submit your opinion to the threaded discussion identified for that case study.
  • Case Study 1: Defining Physical Abuse of Children
  • Case Study 2: Defining Economic Well-Being
  • Case Study 3: Defining Substance Abuse Among Pregnant Women
  • Case Study 4: Defining a Social Interaction
  • Case Study 5: Defining Sex in a National Survey
• Chapter 1 draft is due this week.

9/ March 17

Collecting Quantitative Data

Analyzing Quantitative Data

Chapter II of your Research Proposal

Submit your Method section to the drop box in WebCT. The following scoring rubric will be used:
Chapter 3 Scoring Rubric (Word)

Experimental Designs and Random Assignment/Grouping

Content of a Method Section

Using heading levels in APA style

• Reply to at least 3 student posts in each of the 2 discussions on sampling in which you posted last week using WebCT (2 out of 5 discussions;
  3 replies per discussion).
• Reply to at least 3 student posts in each of the 2 discussions on operational definitions in which you posted last week using WebCT (2 out of 5 discussions; 3 replies per discussion).
• Choose 2 of the 5 case studies and write informed opinions based on the questions asked.  Submit your opinion to the threaded discussion identified for that case study. 
  • Case Study 1: Comparison of Asian and White Americans
  • Case Study 2: Forming Experimental and Control Groups
  • Case Study 3: Forming Comparison Groups in Classroom Research
  • Case Study 4: Forming Comparison Groups for Postpartum Disorders
  • Case Study 5: Identifying Comparison Groups for Childhood Abuse
• Use the APA manual to organize your paper as  you begin putting it together.
• **Reminder***Chapter 3 is due this week.

11/ March 31

Interpreting results in terms of hypotheses

Writing a results section

Writing a discussion section

• Begin thinking about how your results section will be organized and what kind of data you will need to report.
• Begin thinking about what predictions you are making about your findings. Which way do you anticipate the data to go? Think about your study and how answering your research questions might benefit the field (should already be outlined in your rationale). Think about potential limitations of your study. If you are able to identify them now, take steps to correct those. Think about what you will know when your study is concluded and what future research questions might be logical extensions from your project.

13/ April 14

Mixed Method Designs

Action research Designs

Final Draft of Your Research Proposal

SPSS

Explanation of the SPSS program purpose

Step by step task analysis "how to"

Reading SPSS output pages

• Make sure you have followed the examples in these lessons and could analyze the data and find the same results. This is self check assignment. If your answers are different than those reported here, you need to go back and check your work to correct any errors.
• If your study will use a group design, create your ideal data set and create analyze that data using the SPSS program. This will help you write your results and discussion sections of the final paper.
• Work on final paper.
• Here are the scoring rubrics that will be used for the remainder of the paper:
  Chapter 4 Scoring Rubric (Word)
  Chapter 5 Scoring Rubric (Word)

Institutional Review Board

On-line Training for Researchers

Application to Ethics Committee

Final Exam

• Complete the online training for researchers, save the certificates, and upload them into elearning along with the rest of your application.

• Submit the Institution Review Board Application and all supporting documents to the drop box in WebCT:

  • 3 pages of the application (cover, content, & attestation)
  • Consent form
  • Measures 
  • Permission letter from administration of research site (if available at this time).

  Do not submit your IRB proposal to the university committee at this time. You must have instructor approval as well as the approval of the department chair.

• No class, work in your groups.

• Final papers due.