Your final grade is determined by your performance on class assignments, the self-assessment, and -- to a far lesser extent -- your class participation. We do, however, reserve the right to add or modify assignments as the class progresses. The following depicts the preliminary breakdown of work for the course and each assignment's contribution to your total grade.

Readings and Self-Assessment (solo)

See the Leedy website: chapters: 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 (Details: Reading Assignments by week)

Complete the above quizzes; hit "submit" and then email the results to mwang@mail.sdsu.edu I'll record the results on the gradebook of Blackboard. You can take the quiz as many times as you wish and email the best result.

15% (7.5 pts each except 15 pts for chapter 11: total 75 pts)

Literature Review (solo)

Tool: EndNote, Microsoft Word

using sources effectively (PPT in class)

The lit review paves the way for the case study, it's therefore connected to the case study. But you will compete it independently and then integrate your review to define the case study, questions and research methods. Specific parameters of the assignment will be provided in class.

In essence, you'll produce a structured white or technical paper that generally conforms to APA guidelines.

Hints and sample

Brooks , Gibson , and Sp04_791A

common problems of lit review

Week 7 (latest by Friday)

20% (100 pts)

see grading criteria

Case Study (team) includes two closely-related deliverables:

data analysis report and the final report

You'll conduct a case study on a topic of your own interest. See the Topics Page.

The case study allows you to walk through the entire research process -- from identifying viable research issues to investigate ... to conducting a brief lit review (to inform how you'll proceed) ... to collecting and analyzing the data and inferring meaning from it.

Each team will approach the task from a different theoretical and practical frame of reference -- impacting how data are collected and from whom ... as well as how results may be positioned.

This activity helps to connect theory and practice ... and provides first-hand experience with developing and "administering"/implementing several different tools -- for example, a rubric to assess documents or extant data of some kind; a brief survey, an interview guide, or an observation protocol.

Your grade/score comprises feedback gleaned from instructor assessment and your own reflective input (relative to team process and individual contribution).

template for data analysis

template for final report

example for content analysis: Seaworld

The report is due the last session.

But the data analysis part is due two weeks before the last session for a no-grade review.

35% (175 pts)

see grading criteria

Mini Data Analysis Exercises (team)

You'll work both in groups and independently on simple exercises that build skills (and confidence) with the analytical techniques we'll be covering in class, primarily t test, ANOVA, and CHI-square.

using data supplied to you

Tool: Analyse-it

during the several Statistics sessions

15% (75 pts)

Participation

Participation in class activities (whether online or place-bound) is critical to the learning experience in this course.

5% (25 pts)

Team Participation

Peer evaluation.
Complete the team evaluation.

5% (25 pts)

Final Presentation (team)

PowerPoint

Grading Scales