SOC/CRJ 3610: Social Research, Spring, 2016 -- ONLINE, WRITING ENRICHED
Professor: Stephen
M. Marson, Ph.D., ACSW
Office: NO Office
Inclement
weather: (910) 521-6888
Office Hours: Available by appointment on Skype 910 738-9522
Course
Prerequisite: SOC 1020 or SOC/CRJ 2400
Course Description:
This course is designed to develop an understanding of the basic research
methods available to social scientists. The principal purpose of this course is
to acquaint the student with these methods in order to aid the critical analysis
of social science research from academia, government agencies, the media and
other sources. The student will be given the opportunity to put into practice
what they have learned by conducting a survey, analyzing the data, and
presenting the results at the end of the semester.
This class utilizes Blackboard for communication, posting of electronic
readings, and turning in assignments. This
course is a writing enhanced course.
Overview
1.
As a
Writing Enhanced Course students will
gain experience in the employment of strategic writing skills which meets the
expectations of graduates from sociology and criminal justice.
2. Gain insights into the groundwork associated with
thinking about social research methods.
3. Understand the
relationship between theory and research and the degree to which natural science
approach is an acceptable framework to study social science.
4. Understand the
fundamentals of social research design with emphasis placed on survey research,
case study research and experimental designs.
5. Comprehend the
"research question" in conjunction with the uniquely suited research design.
6. Will be able to
complete a review of literature.
7. Will comprehend
research ethics.
Quantitative
Methods
8. Understand the
components of quantitative methods including but not limited to: sampling; data
collection (interviewing, instrument construction, structure observations and
content analysis).
9. Understand the
non-technical aspects of selecting a method of analysis.
10. Will understand
how computers are used in data analysis (Excel will be emphasized).
Qualitative Methods
11. Understand the
components of qualitative methods including but not limited to: subject
selection, document selection and unit of analysis.
12. Comprehend
ethnography, participant observation, semi-structured & unstructured
interviewing, focus groups, conversation & discourse analysis, and document
examination.
13. Understand the
diverse research methods available for qualitative analysis.
14. Will understand
how computers are used in data analysis.
Comparisons of
Methods
15. Will comprehend
the differences between qualitative and quantitative methods.
16. Will understand
the uses of the Internet for the social sciences.
Course Outline and Reading Assignments:
Topic |
Requirements |
DATES: Modules on Blackboard |
READ ME FIRST! Overview of course. Assignments are laid out. We will explore ways in which social research is located in a wider context which will demonstrate why social research is complete in a particular manner. Much of what is addressed is an overview of the entire course. The goal is to gain ground work for the rest of the course. | Watch video and schedule a time an interview in order to write individualize proposal via skype. Also get technical support. The interview will save you a huge amount of time later. Make sure to have your computer on during the interview. |
Due: August 19, 2015 Tab labelled READ ME FIRST! |
This is a Writing Enriched course. However, it is important for you to realize that course requirements have never changed. The writing requirements have not changed. We are going to begin the course with the most challenging section: The Review of Literature. Once you complete that, the rest of the course will be easy. First, you need to quickly read chapter 1 and
review the powerpoint which goes with it: Next you need to know how to find material in the library. You can find a presentation at: http://www2.uncp.edu/home/alewine/crj_soc_3610/ |
Chapters 1 |
Module 1 Start: August 19, 2015 Deadline: August 23, noon |
Writing a review of literature. Part 2 |
Chapter 4 and 5 |
Module 2 Start: August 19, 2015 Deadline: August 22, noon |
Writing a review of literature. Part 3 |
Read the article at:
http://www.marson-and-associates.com/syllabi/3610reviewlit1.html
Submit the Review of Literature |
Module 3 Start: August 19, 2015 Deadline: September 4, noon Late papers will be dropped a letter grade |
Sampling After completing module 2, you are prepared to write the section on your proposal entitled: Discussion of Sample Survey Between one and three paragraphs -- not to go over one page. Describe how you derived your sample. In the number of subjects, etc. Use your SOC/CRJ 3610 textbook for labeling your sample type. Thus, your textbook (Chapter 8) MUST be used as a citation within this section. Submit your paper to steve.marson@uncp.edu and upload it to SafeAssignment in "2nd Draft." Lated papers will be dropped a letter grade. |
Chapter 8 Submit the Discussion of Sample Survey |
Module 4 Start: August 19, 2015 Deadline: September 9, noon Late papers will be dropped a letter grade |
Reliablity and Validity. Submit your paper to steve.marson@uncp.edu and upload it to SafeAssignment in "3rd Draft." Lated papers will be dropped a letter grade. |
Chapters 7, 10 and 11
http://www.marson-and-associates.com/Powerpoints/3610/brymansrm4e_ch10.ppt
http://www.marson-and-associates.com/Powerpoints/3610/brymansrm4e_ch11.ppt
|
Module 5 Start: August 19, 2015 Deadline: September 16, noon |
Write and submit the Summary, Introduction and abstract |
Module 6 Start: August 19, 2015 Deadline: September 20, noon |
|
Entire proposal submitted after
, noon will be dropped a letter grade. Make sure you follow the outline at: http://www.marson-and-associates.com/syllabi/3610paper.html |
|
Module 7 Start: August 19, 2015 Deadline October 15, noon |
Research Strategies & Designs. Understand the relationship between theory and research. Operationalization (or operationalize) means transferring and idea (concept) into a measurable form (variable). Know the difference beween deductive and inductive. Compare aulitative and qualtitative research methods. Know thedifferences among Exploratory, Descriptive and Explanatory Research. |
Chapter 2 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1k_DkCGCZcHuvUjm3WdF-Q and watch the video entitled How to Read and Understand a Research Study. |
Module 8 Start: August 19, 2015 Deadline: before December 4 noon |
Make sure to understand the difference between experiment validity and measurement validity. They are NOT the same thing. In terms of experimental validity, it is critical to understand the difference between internal and external validity. Your book gives the best explanations. Make sure that you understand the difference between cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. |
Chapter 3
http://www.marson-and-associates.com/Powerpoints/3610/brymansrm4e_ch03.ppt
http://www.marson-and-associates.com/Powerpoints/GoodExper.ppt
will help to understand chapter 3.
http://www.marson-and-associates.com/syllabi/3610_Longitudinal.html will
help!
http://www.marson-and-associates.com/Powerpoints/3610casestudyoutline.pdf will help.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1k_DkCGCZcHuvUjm3WdF-Q and watch the videos entitled "How Results can be
misleading: Problems in Experimental Designs" and "Research Design:
Observational and Correlation Studies." |
Module 9 Start: August 19, 2015 Deadline: before December 4 noon |
Ethical issue arise at variety of stage in social research. A NOVA film entitled Do Scientists Cheat? will be used as a basis for discussion and analysis. You'll be tested on your knowledge from the videos. |
Chapter 6 The films are available on YouTube.
An old but very important citation:
An old but very important
citation:
Environment, Heredity And Intelligence. Reprint Series No. 2. |
Module 10 Start: August 19, 2015 Deadline: before December 4 noon |
Quantitative data anlysis There are 4 members in the family of Measures of Central Tendency (Averages). Know them and make sure you can do the math. Non-technical. |
Read Chapter 15 http://www.marson-and-associates.com/Powerpoints/3610/brymansrm4e_ch15.ppt They are: The Mean: http://www.animatedsoftware.com/statglos/sgmean.htm The Median: http://www.animatedsoftware.com/statglos/sgmedian.htm The Mode: http://www.animatedsoftware.com/statglos/sgmode.htm The Harmonic Mean: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HarmonicMean.html (used for factions) The Geometric Mean see: http://www.aboutscotland.com/harmony/prop5.html (used for rates like interest rates at a bank) |
Module 11 Start: August 19, 2015 Deadline: before December 4 noon |
Overview of Quantitative Research Emphasis on words rather than numbers. |
Chapter 17 Review
the Powerpoint at
http://www.marson-and-associates.com/Powerpoints/3610/brymansrm4e_ch17.ppt
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1k_DkCGCZcHuvUjm3WdF-Q
and watch
the video entitled Qualitative Methods and take notes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWb-M4rnxlY and take notes. |
Module 12 Start: August 19, 2015 Deadline: before December 4 noon |
Focus Groups Among Qualitative Methods, Focus Groups are held in the highest esteem and you are likely to be involved in conducting a focus group after you graduate. |
Chapter 21
Powerpoint at
http://www.marson-and-associates.com/Powerpoints/3610/brymansrm4e_ch21.ppt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA2Eo1ggkjc and take notes. Here is an example of research that used a focus group: http://www.marson-and-associates.com/syllabi/3000churners.pdf |
Module 13 Start: August 19, 2015 Deadline: before December 4 noon |
Breaking Down Q and Q! |
|
Module 14 Start: August 19, 2015 Deadline: December 4 noon |
Go to test tab and take the "End of Grade Exam" | "End of Grade Exam" |
Module 15 Deadline: December 4 noon |
*Although we have starting dates, students may begin the module before the starting date!
Key Issues: On iTunes -- which can be found on Blackboard -- is a series of instructional films. Students are required to watch each film and submit the assignment (mostly by email). There are NO required public posting of student work. The instructor will NOT retain of students' work. This includ discussion board material.
Final Exam: Go to for exam
schedule:
Since this is a 3 hour class, the above schedule affords this class to two
different exams times. On the first day of class, the students voted
for Monday at 1:30 PM.
Procedures:
Lectures and class discussion,
written assignments with
feedback, role-playing games and related active learning class
activities, occasional audio-visuals and guest speakers.
Required Texts:
Bryman, A. (2012).
Social Research Methods. NY: Oxford University Press.
About Computer Usage: Students are required to have an email account to
submit and receive assignments. All
students receive an email account from the university at the point of
application. Student email addresses are all of the form that ends in
@bravemail.uncp.edu. It is the student’s responsibility to check his or
her university supplied email account in order to stay current with university
communications. Following admission, his or her UNCP email account will be
closed after the first regular semester in which he or she is not enrolled.
Students are encouraged to store and backup all their assignments on the space
of the server that
Assignments: Due dates are
listed on the course outline.
Task |
Purpose |
Grade Basis |
Proportion |
See information within the MODULES A research proposal is required for this course. A research proposal is defined as a document that describes the design, schedule and budget for conducting a research project. The paper should be 17 to 20 pages long (excluding title and abstract page). The required outline can be found by clicking the hot link. Must be written in the following order (these headings must be included in the paper):
|
Apply and practice research skills. |
70%
|
|
See information within the MODULES Notes on the chapters |
Demonstrate level of knowledge from text, lectures
and assignments. |
Answers to items will be assessed individually |
30%
|
EOG |
Required for SACS |
Answers to items will be assessed individually |
0 |
Attendance will be addressed by the deadlines for the assignments.
Grading Components Scale:
A 92-100 |
B 82-86 |
C 72-76 |
D 62-66 |
A- 90-91 |
B- 80-81 |
C- 70-71 |
D- 60-61 |
B+ 87-89 |
C+ 77-79 |
D+ 67-69 |
F 0-59 |
Students with Disabilities:
Religion Statement: The University of North Carolina at Pembroke has a
legal and moral obligation to accommodate all students who must be absent from
classes or miss scheduled exams in order to observe religious holidays; we must
be careful not to inhibit or penalize these students for exercising their rights
to religious observance.
To accommodate students’ religious holidays, each student will be allowed
two excused absences each semester with the following conditions:
1.
Students, who submit written notification to their instructors within two
weeks of the beginning of the semester, shall be excused from class or other
scheduled academic activity to observe a religious holy day of their faith.
Excused absences are limited to two class sessions (days) per semester.
2.
Students shall be permitted a reasonable amount of time to make up tests
or other work missed due to an excused absence for a religious observance.
3.
Students should not
be penalized due to absence from class or other scheduled academic
activity because of religious observances.
A student who is to be excused from class for a religious
observance is not required to provide a second-party certification of the reason
for the absence. Furthermore,
a student who believes that he or she has been unreasonably denied an education
benefit due to religious beliefs or practices may seek redress through the
student grievance procedure.
Tutoring
is available by subject with peer tutors who show
proficiency in courses and have been trained in effective tutoring strategies.
The tutoring sessions can host up to five students per session.
To get the most effective results students should sign up for tutoring as
soon as possible. Students should
also come to tutoring sessions with specific questions prepared regarding course
material. The more consistent the
attendance to tutoring sessions, the better students will understand the
material and perform at a higher level in class.
Sign up for tutoring in the Center for Academic Excellence office.
Supplemental Instruction (SI) is
available to assigned classes that present historically difficult material.
An SI Leader is an upperclassman, model student who has taken the course
and shown proficiency, and has been trained in effective Supplemental
Instruction leadership strategies.
An SI Leader is assigned to the course to attend all lecture sessions and host
at least three study sessions per week for students to attend voluntarily.
SI sessions will provide supplemental material for students to use to
improve their understanding of the course material.
SI sessions also provide an opportunity for students to ask questions,
and gain insight from their classmates.
Students are encouraged to attend as frequently as possible to review the
class material consistently. The
more frequent the attendance at SI Sessions, the better students will understand
the material and perform in class.
The
Resource Learning Lab offers computer based,
self-paced tutoring in basic writing skills from composing sentences,
paragraphs, and essays, to addressing common writing problems, basic reading
comprehension, and word problem dissection.
These programs are 4 – 8 weeks long and offer non-credit, collectable
test performance data on each student during their progression through our
programs. The Resource Learning Lab also offers tutoring that improves academic
study skills through self-help DVD’s, such as Values and Goals, Time Management,
Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving, Active Listening and Note-Taking,
Researching, Reading and Writing, and Studying and Test-Taking.
These programs are designed to enhance college-level reading
comprehension and writing skills, and to improve the areas where students find
they have deficiencies. The
Resource Learning Lab is available to all students, whether right out of high
school or non-traditional students needing a refresher.
T
If you have problems with the videos, read the following:Visit the iTunes U login page athttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1k_DkCGCZcHuvUjm3WdF-Q. Be sure to click the Log In link and login using the same username and password you use for Bb, email, etc. After logging in, a popup window will appear which will automatically open iTunes on your computer and take you to the UNCP iTunes U site. If needed, click the appropriate semester icon and you will see the classes that you are enrolled in. Click the desired course and you will see a list of class videos which you can download or stream directly from iTunes. To download individually, click the "Get" button to the right of each video. To download all the tracks, click the "Get Tracks" button next to the UNCP Logo on the top left. After downloading, you can play the video on any computer or sync the video to your mobile devices. To stream the video without downloading, simply double click on the name of the desired video and after a few seconds the video should begin. If you have any problems please call the UNCP HelpDesk at 910-521-6260.
Blackboard Usage: Explorer version 8 does not function well with Blackboard. As a result, the computer staff recommend that student use Firefox . If you do not have these browsers on your desktop, download them now. Both browsers are free and the hotlinks are provided on this syllabus.