Foundations of
Communication Research (C&J 501)
Dept of Communication and Journalism
Instructor: Dr. Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik
Email: plutgen@unm.edu or through WebCT course site http://vista.unm.edu
Office: C&J 221
Office hours: By
Appointment and Monday 12:00 -1:30 p.m., Wednesday 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. (except
holidays and the following dates: 9/23, 10/19, 11/11, 11/23). This semester, I
plan on being on campus most of Monday and Wednesday, so stop by my office and
see if I’m in at times other than those indicated.
Telephone: TBA (I’ll give you my cell # the first day
of class)
Course Description: Review and evaluation of various forms of research and scholarly
writing in the field of communication; identification of conceptual and
paradigmatic problems in interpretation of research results; attention to
skills in writing and reporting research.
Course Goals:
o Become familiar with the building blocks of human communication research (purpose, paradigms, units of analysis, methods, reliability, validity, independent v. dependent variables, levels of measurement, etc.)
o Understand the purpose and become familiar with the written form of a literature review-as-argument
o Read, understand, recognize the argument/rationale, and critique published communication research
o Become familiar with formal style in academic writing (APA)
o Develop answerable research questions (RQs) for quantitative/qualitative methods to learn how different methods provide different kinds of information about the same topic
o Explore basics of quantitative/qualitative data analysis and gain a beginning understanding of how to use these to answer RQs and test hypotheses
o Learn how to access academic, peer-reviewed research studies in the communication field and to understand the difference between these articles and articles written in trade journals, newspapers, or other online sources
o Become aware of the ethical issues regarding human communication research in order to conduct ethical research that protects research subjects
Required Books:
1.
Baxter, L. A. & Babbie, E. (2004). The basics of communication research. Belmont, CA.
Wadsworth/Thompson Learning.
2. APA (2001). Publication Manual
for the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition.
3. Other chapters and articles noted in Unit Readings posted on WebCT.
COURSE POLICIES:
Email: Email me using the email on the syllabus or through the WebCT course supplemental site. Students can email each other and/or the instructor through this system. Logon to http://vista.unm.edu, click on “Mail” icon on left-hand side of course homepage. To reply or respond to course emails sent through WebCT, you will have to do so in the WebCT course site. I will check course email at least once daily. Please email again or call me if you do not receive a response within three (3) working days of sending me an email message; there is always the possibility of problems with electronic messaging. I will not send grades or otherwise private student information via email. Assignments will not be accepted via email unless there are extenuating circumstances and I have agreed to receive the assignment in this manner.
Attendance: Learning in this course takes two major forms—cognitive and experiential. The latter requires participation in classroom experiences. Although attendance is not required, students’ grades will indirectly reflect absences through peer evaluation and poorer performance on assignments. It will be impossible to fully participate in your team’s interactions if you are not in class.
Written Work Guidelines (except for in-class writing):
Late Work Grading Policy:
Assignment Submissions: Most assignments will be due at 11:55 p.m., via WebCT. Instructions for posting assignments are at the end of the syllabus. Read these carefully and follow.
Grade Appeals:
Readiness Assessment Tests: If a team believes that their answer to a particular question on a Readiness Assessment Test (RAT) is as good as, or better than, the one I designated as correct, the team may submit a written appeal. Use the forms provided in the team folder. All appeals must be in writing and come from teams. Individuals cannot make RAT question appeals. If the appeal is granted, points go only to the team that structured and submitted the appeal. Detailed instructions for the appeal process are included in your team folder. When an appealed answer will benefit an individual team member, adjustments will be made accordingly. Granted team-appealed answers will never work to the detriment of individual test scores.
Other Assignments: I will not discuss grades on the day an assignment is returned.
Academic Integrity: You will be expected to maintain the highest standard of academic integrity. Violations include, but are not limited to, cheating, fabrication, tampering, plagiarism or facilitating such activities. These actions are grounds for immediate failure. The University reserves the right to take disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal, against any student who is found guilty of academic dishonesty or otherwise fails to meet these standards. In this graduate course, you are expected to know APA style for citing outside sources. Plagiarism is one of the most serious ethical missteps a scholar can make, so it is imperative to give credit where credit is due. See for UNM academic honesty policy and statement at http://handbook.unm.edu/D100.html. Students who have questions concerning scholastic regulations and procedures at the University should refer to the “General Academic Regulations” section of the University Catalog.
Diversity: This course encourages different perspectives related to such factors as
gender, race, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and other
relevant cultural identities. This course seeks to foster understanding and
inclusiveness related to such diverse perspectives and ways of communicating.
Ethics: The course emphasizes ethical practices and perspectives. Above all, students and instructors should strive to communicate and act, both in class interactions and in assigned coursework, in a manner directed by personal integrity, honesty, and respect for self and others. Included in this focus is the need for academic honesty by students as stated by the UNM Pathfinder. Students need to do original work and properly cite sources. For example, be aware of plagiarism—directly copying more than 3 or 4 words from another author without quoting (not just citing) the author is plagiarism. Further, course content will encourage the ethical practices and analysis of professional communication.
COURSE FORMAT:
Learning Teams: Each student will be placed in a zero history (together for first time), heterogeneous (different kinds of members) team that will stay together over the course of the semester. Students will be responsible for the initial acquisition of the course content (assigned readings) and for working collaboratively with other students to apply content themes.
1. Chapter 1: pp. 9-13 (Foundations)
2. Chapter 2: pp. 17-35; pp. 38-43 (Selecting topic, literature review, reading communication reports, purpose, unit of analysis—stop at “to test your grasp”; Formulating RQs or Hypotheses)
3. Chapter 4: pp. 69-72 (Introduction)
4. CITI Training information (or read Chapter 5)
5. Merrigan & Huston, Ways of Knowing (WebCT, pdf file) see also:
6. Paradigms and Methods Handout (WebCT, pdf file)
7. Tashakkori & Teddie, Mixed Methods (WebCT, pdf file)
QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES 1 (introduction and data
analysis)
1. Part 2 Introduction (pp. 103-105)
2. Chapter 6: all
3. Chapter 7: p. 132 (Introduction), pp. 134-140 (Nonprobability & probability
sampling); pp. 150-162 (Sampling designs)
4. Chapter 11: pp. 260 – 268 (Descriptive statistics)
5. Chapter 12: p. 272 introduction; pp. 276-279 statistical significance & Type I /Type II errors
QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES 2 (data gathering)
1. Chapter 8: all
2. Chapter 9: all
3. Chapter 10: all
1. Participant Observation Handout (WebCT pdf file)
2. Case Studies (WebCT pdf file)
3. Chapter 14: all
4. Chapter 15: all
5. Zorn, Focus Groups as Sites of Influential Interaction (WebCT, pdf file)
1. Trustworthiness: 3 readings:
a. Course text, Part 3: pp. 297-299
b. Miles & Huberman, Making Good Sense, “Standards for the Quality of Conclusions” pp. 277-280 (WebCT pdf file)
c. Qualitative Data Analysis, course text pp. 15-16
2. Chapter 16: all
3. Qualitative Data Analysis (WebCT pdf file)
4. Miles & Huberman, Tactics for Testing or Confirming Findings pp. 262-277 (WebCT pdf file)
(Number of points
in parentheses.)
Individual Performance |
|
1.
Individual Readiness Assessment Tests (5 x 20 = 100) 2.
CITI Course (100) 3.
APA assignment (50) 4.
Quantitative Article Critique (25) 5.
Statistical test use and application (50) 6.
Qualitative Article Critique (25) 7. Qualitative Data Coding (50 points) 8. Literature Review (150 points; 50 points for draft, 100 points for final paper) |
|
Team Performance |
|
1.
Team Readiness Assessment Tests (5 x 20 = 100) 2.
In-class team application activities (points will vary) 3.
Peer Evaluation (determines percentage of total in-class team points that
individuals earn) 4.
Final Exam (100) |
1. Individual/Team Readiness Assessment Tests (RATs). The course material is partitioned into five macro-units. RATs are designed to test reading comprehension for material in required macro-unit readings. For each unit, students will complete an individual test and then a group test. Team tests are “self-grading,” so students will immediately know their individual and team scores. Group scores will be posted for comparison across teams.
2. Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Course in Protection of Human Research Subjects: Read the posted handout “CITI Social Behavioral Instructions” on how to login, create an account, and complete CITI training course on research with human subjects. Go to https://www.citiprogram.org and click on link and follow instructions. When you have completed the training, print out “Course Completion History” and “Human Research Curriculum Completion Report.” You can access both of these through the Main Menu. Bring these printouts to class the day the assignment is due.
3. APA Assignment: This take-home assignment entails students providing examples in the correct APA form for the types of citations listed. To facilitate students’ familiarity with the APA manual, I have provided page numbers.
4. Statistical test use and application: Students will be asked which statistical tests or statistic types are used for specific applications. That is, students will be given a set of scenarios and asked to identify which statistical test/type best serves the scenarios’ stated goal.
5.
Article Critiques: I will
provide an academic, peer-reviewed study that students will read and critique,
using a list of predetermined criteria: one using quantitative-methods, the
other using qualitative methods. These are in-class assignments.
6. Qualitative Data Coding: Students will be given a data set and conduct open-coding on that data.
7. Literature Review: Students will write a paper synthesizing communication research using a predetermined list of criteria. This paper is for the purposes of learning how to craft a rationale/argument and creatively present the published research supporting that argument.
8. Final Exam. Final exam is a cumulative, multiple-choice test covering testing general knowledge regarding communication research. It will be based on the macro-units’ key concepts and will focus on broad areas of knowledge, similar to what was on the RATs. The reading topics and study guides for RATS will serve as the final exam study guide.
9. Peer Evaluation. As a part of the final exam, each student will fill out a form for evaluating the contributions of their team members to the team’s overall success. This assessment will be used mathematically to determine the proportion of the group’s points that each member receives. That is, the initial points for graded group work is the same for everyone in the group. This number is then multiplied by a given student’s evaluation score.
Final grades are based on the percentage of points earned. Grades will be assigned as follows:
|
90.0-100 |
A |
70.0-79.9 |
C |
59.9 & < |
F |
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80.0-89.9 |
B |
60.0-69.9 |
D |
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Grade Posting:
Grades will be posted on the WebCT
course supplemental site as soon as possible after assignment grading.
(Changes may occur, depending on how the course progresses over the semester.)
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Class |
Date |
Assignment Due |
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PART
ONE: INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY
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1 |
8/24 |
Introduction, team formation, course and assignment overview |
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2 |
8/31 |
Writing a Literature Review |
Sample RAT (Syllabus) |
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9/7 |
NO CLASS, LABOR DAY |
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3 |
9/14 |
Readiness Assessment Test #1 |
RAT 1 |
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4 |
9/21 |
Learning Team Concept Application |
CITI Due |
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9/28 |
APA Assignment Due |
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PART
TWO: QUANTITATIVE COMMUNICATION RESEARCH |
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5 |
10/5 |
Readiness Assessment Test #2 |
RAT 2 |
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6 |
10/12 |
Learning Team Concept Application |
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7 |
10/19 |
Learning Team Concept Application Sampling and Survey Video |
Statistical Test Use and Application |
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8 |
10/26 |
Readiness Assessment Test #3 |
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9 |
11/2 |
Learning Team Concept Application |
In-Class
Quantitative Critique |
QUALITATIVE
COMMUNICATION RESEACH
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10 |
11/9 |
Readiness Assessment Test #4 |
RAT 4 |
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11 |
11/16 |
Learning Team Concept Application |
Draft Literature Review In-class Qualitative Critique |
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12 |
11/23 |
Readiness Assessment Test #5 |
RAT 5 |
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13 |
11/30 |
Individual Concept Application Coding and analyzing
qualitative data |
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14 |
12/7 |
Last day of class Learning Team Concept Application |
Qualitative Data Coding Peer
Evaluation |
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15 |
12/14 |
Final Exam Literature Review |
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ASSIGNMENT
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
I. Save all word-processed work into a rich text file (or submit in Word). I cannot download or open other word-processed formats.
II. Save assignments with your last name and a brief assignment title: i.e., “Smith Quantitative Research Proposal”
III. Then follow these instructions:
i. For example, if you’re submitting “APA,” place cursor on APA, underline will appear, single mouse click to choose
ii. Click “Add Attachments” button
iii. A new window opens with a “My computer” icon on the left-hand side
iv. Click “my computer”
v. Go to where you saved your assignment on your computer (A drive, C drive, etc.)
vi. Double-click your assignment file (in Word or rtf)
vii. The file will then appear above the “Add Attachments” button
viii. Click “Submit”
ix. You will be asked if this is “okay”
x. Click “Okay”
xi. The site should display your assignment as a link.
xii. You’re finished.