Research

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research).

Research is an active, diligent and systematic process of inquiry in order to discover, interpret or revise facts, events, behaviours, or theories, or to make practical applications with the help of such facts, laws or theories. The term "research" is also used to describe the collection of information about a particular subject.

The word "research" derives from the Middle French (see French language) and the literal meaning is "to investigate thoroughly".

This course will approach the term research from a scholarly perspective, giving students the opportunity to become discriminating consumers of research found in common information and library science periodicals and journals. This course will give students the necessary tools to determine the quality and accuracy of research and to the ability to critique work in a knowledgeable manner.

How this course will be taught

This is an online course taught virtually at a distance using the Web. The course is conceived of as discussions on 20 (or so) topics. A lecture course in the University of Arizona amounts to 37 1/2 hours of instruction spread through a semester. Our 'discussions' will be the virtual counterpart of 30 (or so) one and a quarter hour lectures, delivered at a rate of two a week. There will be notes, readings, discussion groups, chat, and (of course) assignments.

The course has a start date and an end date, and the class as a whole will move through the course together The primary means of introducing the scholarly material will be Notes. These are going to be posted one at a time steadily through the session, keeping the whole class moving forward through the material. There are 20 plus sets of Notes, and these normally will be delivered at a rate of 2 a week (usually put up on a Tuesday and a Friday). There will be assignments, with due dates, and formal discussions, and these will serve to check progress. There also will be readings or references to be followed up on the Web.

Almost all interactions will be asynchronous. That is, students can log on whenever they wish, and read material and post replies on timetables that suits their individual needs. A student will typically need to log on about 5 times a week. (An analog here is email-- most folk check their email at least five times a week.)

D2L is used as the instructional and course management environment. Students are expected to log on reasonably regularly, to read and study the Notes and references, to participate in the online discussions, to interact by email, discussion threads, etc with their peers, to write (or otherwise answer) the assignments, to download and upload files and to carry out various other activities. It is hard to anticipate accurately how much time all these course related activities will take in total (and such a figure would vary from student to student and from week to week), but seven hours a week is a rough order of magnitude estimate.

This course is based on a foundation of instruction provided by Dr. Martin Fricke. Since this is my first attempt to teach the course, it is likely it will only deviate only moderately from courses that have been taught in the past. The result is a level of quality information that should be virtually identical to earlier incarnations of this course.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

By the completion of this course, you will

know what empirical research is, and what are the typical techniques used to carry out such research in social science

know what are the strengths and weaknesses of those techniques

be able to say whether research you encounter is good; to say:

what was really being examined

what was the evidence, or support, or principled argument

what were the conclusions

whether the relationship between the evidence and the conclusions was adequate

whether we should we trust the results or the conclusions

be able to consider the applicability of published or known research to your own libraries or information centers

have experienced, read, and discussed many examples of both good and poor research in Library and Information Science

REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS

Students need online access, either by way of their own computers and Internet connection or by public access means (such as those provided in Public Libraries or in on campus labs).

There are two required text(s) for the course.

Patten Mildred L.[2000], Understanding Research Methods; An Overview of the Essentials, Pyrczak Publishing, ISBN 1-884585-22-1 Available from the publisher, http://www.pyrczak.com/

Donnelly, Robert, A, Jr. [2004], The Complete Idiots Guide to Statistics, Alpha Books, ISBN 1-59257-199-9

The inclusion of the Donnelly text is not meant as an insult, but rather as an opportunity to remove some anxieties about the nature of the course. The information provided in the text is both useful and accurate, but also presents the material in an understandable and comfortable manner. Please don t allow the term statistics to skew your perspective of the course this course was developed knowing that it has been quite a few years since any of us have taken mathematics.

Other online materials are available either directly on the Web or through password protected electronic reserves at the library (http://eres.library.arizona.edu with password xxx)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

The coursework requirements are

statistics quizzes. There will be two online statistical quizzes. Each of these will remain accessible for several weeks, and you will be able to make several attempts at them (with the grade of your best try to count).

study evaluations. study evaluations. A short review/critique of 8 research studies will be required for this class. These studies must come from peer-reviewed journals of research in the field of Library and Information Science or a related field (for those of you who are anticipating work in a specific sub-field and are interested in
critiquing material in your discipline, please contact me). A copy of these studies must be included (or in the case of online journals, a hyperlink provided) with the evaluation. The purpose of these assignments is to develop your ability to be a consumer of research. As a result, in order to find these eight papers, it is anticipated that you will cull through at least 70-80 research papers throughout the span of this course. This may seem like an overwhelming task, but given the typical bibliography in a typical literature review, this is quite reasonable. Therefore the workload for the papers is identified as:

 understand the topic well enough to identify a specific component of research
 provide an opportunity for you to browse a large and diverse selection of research to
isolate studies which meet specific criteria
 demonstrate scholarly ability by writing brief (2-3 page) papers examining the
research

participation (group discussion)

The distribution of the marks is as follows

   statistics quizzes 35%

   study evaluations 50%

   participation in discussion(s) 15%*

The expectation is that individuals will utilize the discussions as an opportunity to ensure that their understanding of an issue is accurate, but also to reinforce the understanding of others through constructive discussions. This should not be utilized as a podium for endless chatter, but inclusive and active discourse is expected.

COURSE POLICIES

Academic Code of Integrity

Students are expected to abide by The University of Arizona Code of Academic Integrity. 'The guiding principle of academic integrity is that a student's submitted work must be the student's own.' If you have any questions regarding what is acceptable practice under this Code, please ask an instructor.

Accommodating Disabilities

Any person in this course with disabilities should contact the Instructor who will discuss with them what needs to be done to open the way to a full and successful educational experience.

Assignment Policies

Submission: The papers are to be submitted usually by the D2L assignment drop box. Documents will be accepted in any format EXCEPT Word Perfect and Microsoft Works (in the event these are the only software applications that you have, please save the files as RTF).

Format, style and content: Content is most important in this course. Style should be plain and transparent. Use whatever format you are most familiar with, but BE CONSISTENT!

Late papers: There will be due dates and students are expected to meet them. With an online course like this, difficulties can arise (such as computers or D2L being temporarily out of service) and appropriate decisions will be made as needed. It is my expectation that unique problems will happen infrequently.

Incompletes

The 1997-8 University of Arizona General Academic Manual, p.23 reads

The grade of I may be awarded only at the end of a semester, when all but a minor portion of the course work has been satisfactorily completed. The grade of I is not to be awarded when the student is expected to repeat the course; in such a case the grade of E must be assigned. Students should make arrangements with the instructor to receive an incompete grade before the end of the semester ...

If the incomplete is not removed by the instructor within one year the I grade will revert to a failing grade.

It has been my experience that most individuals who receive an incomplete never complete the requisite work and unfortunately fail the course. Please make every effort to avoid requesting an incomplete. This is more for your sake than mine.

GRADING

A traditional grading scheme will be used.

90-100	A
80-89	B
70-79	C
60-69*	D
Below 60*	E

*Since this is a graduate-level course, the expectation is that no one should earn grades at this level, although it is conceivably possible.

General grading criteria: For ordinary papers, and unless specified otherwise, you should write about the equivalent of four pages of ordinary text. Grammar, style, or spelling are not central-- provided the paper is understandable and the faults are not so severe as to be a distraction. Then, important grading criteria include:-

clear articulation of your views and arguments

soundness of what is said

appropriate appeal to evidence

clear and concise exposition of the points you are making

consideration of intellectual context and relevant literature

CONTACTING ME

Please utilize the email system provided by D2L to contact me. Traditional email (esp. from AOL, MSN and HOTMAIL accounts) tends to get misfiled by my mail program and it can take considerable time for me to discover and reply to these emails.

Given the nature of the subject matter, I am available by telephone during normal working hours (approx 8am-5pm, ARIZONA time) M-F. If I don t answer, feel free to leave a voicemail and I will return your call as soon as I can.

If you are in Tucson, you may also schedule a meeting. Please use the internal D2L email system to contact me for a time.

LISTSERV
A listserv has been created for the course. This listserv SHOULD NOT be used as a method of communication between or amongst the class. It is to be used so that I can communicate information to you in case of D2L failure. The listserv utilizes your U.Arizona.EDU (email.Arizona.EDU) email address. Please either check that email frequently or forward this to your personal email. According to UA Policy, U.Arizona.EDU (email.Arizona.EDU) email is an official method of communication.