Communication 362-4:

Evaluation Methods for Applied Communication Research

Course Description:

This is a course in applied communication which spans theory and methods of communication research. Although methods introduced in this course can be appropriately used to pursue research questions in a number of areas, the use of these methods to investigate issues related to the introduction, uses and consequences of new communication media and technologies will be the focus of class discussion and is expected to be the focus of student research.

Lectures will introduce a variety of theoretical issues, as well as pragmatic concerns that arise in utilizing the methods introduced in the course. Topics will include:

· approaches to the study of new information technologies and the technology/society relationship;

· differences between the qualitative and quantitative research paradigms;

· research paradigms and their implications for research practice;

· the formation of research questions;

· research design; and

· ethics in field research.

Class discussion will focus on the range of questions addressed by contemporary researchers interested in issues related to the development, introduction and use of new communication media and technologies in a range of settings.

Students will be introduced to a variety of research methods which may include:

· participant observation;

· interview techniques;

· discourse and content analysis;

· documentary research;

· ethnography;

· survey research;

· focus groups,

and other techniques as required by student interests and needs. Each week a topic will be introduced in the lecture. Lab time will be used to give students an opportunity to try the research methods introduced each week during the lectures.

Students will design, develop and implement an original pilot study using at least two methods introduced in class. The study should address the design, implementation or use of new communication technologies. As a final paper, students will turn in a research proposal that incorporates findings from the pilot study they carried out during the term.

Format: 2 hour lecture and 2 hour lab/tutorial.

Reading materials will provide examples of how the range of research methods introduced in class are used. Lectures will provide information about how to do research using methods.

Labs will provide students with an opportunity to discuss readings and lectures, and gain practical experience using methods introduced in class.

Because material covered in class compliments (rather than repeats) concepts introduced in readings, STUDENTS ARE STRONGLY URGED NOT TO MISS CLASS. Put another way, if you skip class you won't know how to do the research, because the 'how-to' part is not well addressed in your readings.

Prerequisites: At least 60 credit hours, including CMNS 253, and one of CMNS 260 or 261.

Required Text:

Creswell, J.W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Newbury Park, CA.: Sage.

Students will be required to read additional articles that will either be on reserve or available for photocopying in copy room in the School of Communication.

Deadlines will be strictly enforced. A late penalty of 1% per day of the total mark will be levied, to a total of 15%. No requests for waiving of this penalty will be considered without an original copy of a doctor's note or other documentation appropriate to the situation.

All assignments should be double spaced, typed and stapled, and contain your name.

Description of Assignments

Overview

The assignment structure in this course is intended to be cumulative. That is, each assignment should build on the previous assignments. Students are required to decide what topic they will focus on early in the term. Subsequent lab assignments are designed to both give students experience using research methods introduced in class, and to provide students with insights that will contribute to their final papers. It is intended that work undertaken in the lab assignments will be incorporated into the final paper.

Your topic must in some way relate to the study of new information technology and society. You may choose your own research topic or you can choose a topic from those listed below.

After week 4, changes in topic will not be permitted. Because you will be spending all term with a topic, you are urged to choose a topic that you find engaging and compelling.

Students may work in groups provided that they complete their lab assignments separately, and that the final paper completed by a group reflect the efforts of the number of people in the group.

Statement of research question and bibliography of related work: (10 points)

For this assignment, do the following.

· Decide what your research question is.

· Write a one or two paragraph explanation about your research interest.

· Start by saying something general about the topic you are interested in, such as what you know about it or what you think is true about it.

· Next, indicate what questions have not been addressed in literature you have read about the topic, that you would like to know the answer to (you research question).

· Indicate what methods you think you would like to use to address your topic.

· Finally, you should include a list of 10 references from journals and books that are related to your topic. (You may include WWW references as long as they are in addition to the 10 references to journal articles and books).

References should be complete and should conform to the School of Communication style guide or a published style manual (such as the APA or MLA style guide).

Methodology exercises (2): 2 at 15 points each

Over the course of the semester, several research methods will be presented (according to student needs and interests). Students will be required to gain practical experience with at least two of these techniques (the nature of the requirement will vary from method to method). Students will be required to hand in the results of their 'field trials' for comment, within two weeks of when the method is presented in class. Each exercise is described below.

You should anticipate spending 8-10 hours outside of class time completing each methodology exercise.

Participant Observation:

Select a place to conduct participant observation. Go to that location, and act as a participant observer for one half hour. Plan your time so that you have several hours free after doing your observation, to write up your field notes. Later in the week go back to the same sight and do another observation for 15 minutes. Again, leave time after your observation to write up your field notes. Turn in notes made during your half hour and 15 minute observations, as well as your write up of field notes from both sittings.

Interviews:

Three types of interviews will be presented in class-- two types of particularistic interview and an approach to a generalizable interview. For this assignment, you will be required to generate a set of interview questions for each type of interview, and then go out and conduct a trial interview with each set of questions. After conducting the trial interviews (they will likely take about half an hour each) you should make sure you have time free to write up both your interview notes and your reflections on conducting the interviews. You should hand in the three sets of interview questions, the interview texts, and your notes made after conducting each of the interviews.

Content / Textual Analysis:

Several approaches to analyzing media texts (primarily news) will be presented in class. For this assignment, you will be choosing a small textual corpus and subjecting it to a preliminary content analysis by first generating a set of questions, then designing a coding protocol and applying it to several units. Then select another approach to textually analyzing the same material. In an even more preliminary way, generate a set of questions appropriate to that approach, and suggest how the results of the analysis might compare with those of the content analysis. You should hand in the textual corpus, your lists of questions, coding protocol and preliminary analyses.

Archival Research and Government Documents:

For this exercise you will be required first to identify and locate an exhaustive list of possible sources for archival and government documents related to your area of interest. Once you have identified a list of potential sources, you should indicate the type of information you expect to find in each source of information. Again, this list should be as exhaustive as possible. Finally, you should choose one document from your list, and locate it. Once you have located it, identify other documents it refers to and locate those if possible. Continue with this process until you have spent at least 8 hours searching for documents that were referred to in other documents (or until you hit a dead end). Once you have stooped locating documents, sit down and draw a diagram of which documents led you where. From this you should also be able to compile a timeline of events described in your documents, a list of people, agencies and institutions identified in your documents, and perhaps other phenomenon (such as reference to regulations, hearings etc.). Identify as much information as you are able to, and then sit down and write up a summary of what you have learned as a result of your document search. You should turn in a list of documents you consulted, the lists and diagrams you generated in doing the exercises, and your written summary of what you learned.

Focus Groups:

If you do this exercise with a focus on focus groups, you will be required first to identify who will be asked to participate in your focus group, and why you have chosen to delimit the population in the way that you have. You should also indicate what you would like to find out in holding a focus group, and submit a list of questions that have been designed to illicit answers to the questions your are posing. You should indicate where you would hold your focus group and why you have chosen that location, whether or not you would use audio and/or video tape and why you made the decision you did, what problems might arise and what you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach. You should turn in all written material this exercise generates.

Coding data:

In this exercise, you will be coding a few pages of textual data, and experimenting with analysis of your coded data using QSR-Nudist on the computer. You should either select a few pages of data from one of your lab exercises or we will provide you with a few pages of text. Your text should be in electronic form, and you must be able to open up your text file on a computer lab computer. For this exercise, you will first review the text, and develop coding categories. Next you will go through and code the data. Finally, you will work explore analyzing your text with QSR-Nudist. You should hand in your text, the coding categories you developed, your coded data, and a description of the trials and tribulations of working with QSR-Nudist.

How to question statistics:

Go to the library and locate several (a half dozen) articles in your research area that include statistics. What type of statistical tests are used? For two articles, answer the following questions: Does the author describe the sampling procedure? Whether the integrity of the data was checked, and if so how it was checked? Whether the research instrument was pre-tested, and if so, how? Is gender a variable of investigation? What other variables have been excluded, and what if any limitations might this pose for the study? Are you given adequate information to determine whether the research instrument was valid? Do the authors' conclusions seem to you to reflect what the numbers day? If not, provide some examples. Are there other conclusions that might explain the statistical patterns the author(s) found? You should refer back to the Eichler article in doing this exercise.

Non-obtrusive methods:

If you choose this exercise, you should identify as many non-obtrusive measures as you can related to your area of research, and potential problems associated with each type of data. In particular, you should attempt to identify as many ethical problems as you can, as well as all of the things that might come to bear on the validity of the conclusions that might be reached from working with each data source you identify.

Case Study Research:

If you are electing to do this exercise with a focus on case studies, you will be required to describe the case study you would like to do. You should start by indicating what you expect to find, what data sources might be available to you (an exhaustive list), what problems you expect to encounter), how you will delimit your case study population, potential problems in identifying, gaining access to or delimiting your case study population, and how you will conduct your case study (e.g., what data sources you will pursue, why you have chosen those sources, what you expect to find, problems you expect to encounter and so on). You should turn in all written material this process generates.

Research proposal (35 points)

As a final requirement for this course, students will be required to prepare a research proposal which ideally will resemble the research proposal that will be pursued in their thesis research. It should contain

· an introduction and background that contains enough of a literature review to provide a context for posing your research question. This section (or the next section) should also incorporate insights you gained from investigating your topic during your lab exercises.

· a clear statement of research objectives and research questions.

· a methodology section that details the approach that will be followed in answering the research questions. In the methodology section, you should justify your choice of research methods, and you should include a discussion of both the strengths and limitations of various methods that could be employed in your research.

· a section on problems that may be encountered in conducting the proposed research.

· a section on ethics that addresses all of the issues covered in the university ethics forms, available through the SFU Office of Research WWW site.

Class participation (10 points)

Students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings. Students are expected to speak in class and will be required to work in small groups from time to time during class time. Students will be expected to comment on their topics in class and labs.

Final exam (15 points)

An exam will be administered during exam week. Students who have attended class and labs regularly and kept up with their reading should have no difficulty completing the exam. The exam will consist mainly of short answers, definitions and multiple guess questions.

Style:

You are required to use standard referencing procedures in your final papers. You may use either the School of Communication Style Guide (available outside of the general office in the School of Communication), or you may use any other referencing system in common use in the social sciences (such as the Modern Languages Association (MLA) guide or the American Psychological Association (APA) guide. Several style guides are available for review in the reference section of the library or for sale in the bookstore. If you make use on-line resources in your work, you must properly reference on-line resources. Guidelines for citing on-line resources can be found on several WWW sites, including http://www.mun.ca/library/ref/virtuallib.html#grants.

Please insert Grading info. (Re what an A is etc) here).

Potential Paper Topics, CMNS 362

Any one of these questions would be an adequate topic for your term's work and your final paper. In choosing your topic you should keep in mind that you will be using two research methods covered in the class to investigate your topic.

Computer use in the home (note, any of these questions can be asked about computer use in public places like internet cafes or libraries):

· Who uses computers at home, and for what?

· What are the dynamics between household members related to computer use?

· How do children (or adults) use computer games?

· Where in the home are computers located, and what (if any) conflicts exist in relation to their location?

· Are there differences in how men and women use computers, and if so, what are they?

The Internet (note, any of the questions below could be asked about MUDs or newsgroups or other internet services):

· Why do people use computer chat rooms?

· How do people experience the interactions they have in chat rooms?

· How do chat room interactions compare with face to face interactions in the minds of chat room users?

· Do men and women use chat rooms the same way? If not, what are some of the differences?

Miscellaneous questions:

· What artifacts (or things) do people keep near their computers, and why?

· What are some of the ways people are combining use of new information technologies?

· How do people get help when they have a computer problem? Are there differences in how men and women seek (and receive) computer help?

· What happens at computer stores? Who uses them and for what? Do men and women use computer stores the same way? If not, what are the differences?

· What do people think about information technology? Are there similarities and differences in how some groups view information technology? If so, what are they?

· How do people use 'one-stop' government employment kiosks? What works and what doesn't work about them?

· How do organizations deal with responding to e-mail and maintaining www pages?

· Who has access to the internet and who does not have access to the internet?

· How to television or radio stations use the internet?

· How are computers being used in educational settings?

· What expectations do teachers have about what computers can do for students?

· What (if any) problems do workers in a particular industry experience using information technologies?

· How has work changed with the introduction of new technologies?

· How do people decide what information technologies to buy?

· How do people learn about new information technologies?