COMMUN 370: Quantitative Research in Communication(Online)

COMMUN 370: Quantitative Research in Communication(Online)

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Spring 2013

Professor: Hayeon Song, Ph.D.

Office: Johnston Hall 233

E-mail:**

Office Phone: 414-229-1753

Office Hour: by appointment

Course Web:

** Preferred contact. Please allow 48 hours for a response. And please make sure to include “[Comm 370]” in the title of email and provide your name and class info (whether Face-to-face or Online) in the content.

Course description

This course aims to introduce students to the basic set of knowledge and skills needed to design and execute research. Lectures will focus on the conceptual aspects, such as developing research problems, building proper measurements, sampling, designing methods, and analyzing data. After completing the course, students will be equipped to move beyond being passive audience of reported research, and become discriminating consumers and competent practitioners.

Course materials

Required item:

Stewart, T. D. (2002).Principles of Research in Communication.Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon (abbreviated as PRC)

Supplemental items:

• Supplemental items are uploaded in D2L site.

Other items:

• Regular access to a personal computer with PDF reader, speakers and internet access (If you don’t have PDF reader, you can down one from here
• Access to Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Excel: The full Microsoft Office Suite can be purchased by UW students at a reduced price. Follow this link for more information

Be aware that you are not required to purchase this software for the course, but you do need to be able to use it--you can access it at your local campus computer lab.

• Email account: All email will be sent to students' UWM email accounts. If you prefer to use another email account, you must set your UWM account to forward all messages to your alternative email address. If you do not do this (check your UWM account or set it to forward to an account that you do check), you will not receive important course information from the instructor.

Evaluation of performance

Assignments

Worksheets (completion assignments)

Worksheet assignments are available in the folder for each weekly unit and are designed to stimulate discussion by providing an opportunity to practice the skills necessary for successful completion of the course. The worksheets consist of short completion assignments that are designed to assess your understanding of concepts and skills from the course, brief written assignments, and/or analysis of data using Excel. Each worksheet focuses upon a specific aspect of larger assignments (i.e., the papers). Thus, it is crucial that you stay "up to date" on each of the worksheets. Because we will be adding to content from each preceding week, if you fall behind on these assignments it is likely that you will perform poorly on exams and papers.

The worksheets are not graded assignments. Instead, students are responsible for completing the assignments, comparing their responses to the correct answers and--in the case of an error--seeking information about how to accurately complete the assignment. To facilitate this process, during each week's discussion the instructor will create a discussion thread that focuses specifically upon the worksheet. The goal of this discussion is to generate responses from students about correct answers to the worksheets and solicit questions about how answers were attained.

Course Policies and Online Exam Agreement (5 points)

At the start of the semester, you will need to review and electronically sign a course policies and online exam agreement. That agreement identifies a list of documents that must be reviewed before the course begins and requires that you review and confirm the procedures and expectations related to the completion of the online exams. To receive credit, students must read the appropriate documents, complete the policies agreement, electronically sign the online exam agreement, and then upload the completed document to the D2L dropbox.

Weekly Unit Quizzes (220 pts; 11 x 20 pts each)

At the end of each weekly unit, you will need to complete a quiz. There are a total of 11 weekly quizzes. The quizzes consist of 10-20 multiple-choice items and are completed on the D2L website. All quizzes are based upon lectures and readings from each weekly unit. Quizzes are to be completed without notes, readings, or other materials. To take the quizzes, you must sign a document indicating that you will not use any supplemental materials. If it becomes apparent that external materials were used to complete a quiz, a score of 0 will be recorded for that assessment and further action will be pursued via the Dean's office (penalties may range up to expulsion from the University). To help insure adherence to this standard, there is a time limit for each quiz. Two points will be deducted for each 30 second interval over the allotted time. Quizzes must be completed before 11:59 pm on the Sunday at the end of a weekly unit. Failure to complete the quiz before the deadline (regardless of problems with equipment, internet access, etc.) will result in a score of 0. Please plan in advance to insure that you are able to complete the quiz before deadlines. No adjustments will be made to individual quiz scores. At the end of the semester, a total quiz grade will be computed and, if an adjustment is needed (which is done very rarely), it may be made at that point.

Research Papers (260 pts; 1 x 10 pts, 1 x 120 pts (First paper:80pts; Questionnaire: 40pts), 1 x 130 pts)

There are three written papers that must be completed in this course: (1) a group membership and topic preference email, (2) a research summary and methods proposal (first paper), and (3) the results and discussion of your quantitative research findings (final paper). These papers are completed in teams of 2-3 members (3 member teams are preferred).

During the first few weeks of the semester you will need to form teams and choose a research topic. You may form teams any way you wish. In the past, students have formed teams based upon where one another lives (i.e., forming a team with others who live near you), familiarity with one another from previous courses, and so forth. You should also feel free to post to the social discussion forum to ask if others are looking for team members.

Once you have formed a team, your team will need to "meet" (either electronically, by telephone, or face-to-face) to decide upon topic preferences. A document is available on the course website that lists potential topics. On the designated due date, one of your group members will need to contact your instructor to (a) list the members of the research team and (b) list, in order of preference, the three topics that your team would like to research. Your instructor will then compare across all teams and will choose a topic from your submitted list. This assignment should be submitted by one of your group members in a standard email message (not an attachment).

Note that it is acceptable to choose a research topic that is not on the list. However, if you wish to do this you must locate one scholarly (journal) article that has previously investigated to the topic (to insure that you will have sufficient literature from which to build your study), then contact the instructor (prior to the due date for the topic proposal) to explain the topic and your interests. Upon receiving g approval from your instructor, you can then write the topic proposal and submit it to the instructor.

Second, you will write a modified literature review that answers your research question (i.e., your topic). You will need to locate a total of 2 literature review/theoretical articles and 4 quantitative studies that directly deal with the concepts in your research question. The first portion of this paper will contain an annotated bibliography of the articles that you have located. The second part will consist of a rationale for a hypothesis and a hypothesis. Third part will include a summary of the study instrument (e.g., questionnaire).The format of the summary sheet is posted at D2L. Please make sure to use that format. The first paper will be approximately 5 pages in length. Later on, you will be asked to create the actual questionnaire based on the summary sheet. This is the one that you are going to use to collect data.

The final paper will consist of the statistical analysis and conclusions from your research. This will be based upon analysis of data from the distribution of 30 questionnaires that were developed/explained in the first paper. The first part of the second paper will contain the descriptive statistics that characterize the data that you collected. In the second part, you will provide the statistical tests of your hypothesis and any additional findings that emerged from the data. The paper will conclude with interpretation of your findings and explanation of the implications of your conclusion in relation to the literature from the annotated bibliography (in the first paper). This paper should be 6-8 pages in length, with additional tables that summarize the data and analyses.

The point-breakdown for each of the research papers is as follows:

1. Group Membership and Topic Preferences Email: 10 pts
2. First paper: 80 pts
3. Questionnaire: 40 pts
4. Statistical Results and Discussion: 130 pts

Online Discussion Participation (170 pts)

Throughout the semester, we will be holding regular discussions using the course discussion board tool. The discussion boards are organized into three different types of forum: Content, Procedural, and Social. The content forum will be used to discuss the actual course content such as reading, lecture material, and worksheets. The procedural forum will be used to discuss issues related to how the course works, such as assignment guidelines, due dates, and so forth. The social forum is for discussion of any non-course related material. Students are required to post a minimum of 2 comments in the content area for each weekly unit. The quantities required to complete this assignment may be modified as the semester develops. A full explanation of this assignment, including grading criteria, is available in the Course Documents area in the Content section of D2L.

Extra credits for Research Participation (extra 12pts)

If you participate in studies conducted by faculty or graduate students in communication, you are going to have extra credits. You will get 4 points by participating in a study and you can get up to12 points (3 studies).

Grading

There are 650 points possible in this course and the point breakdown is as follows:

Course Policies and Online Exam Agreement
Quizzes / 5pts
220 pts
Research Papers / 260 pts
Online Discussion Participation / 170 pts
TOTAL / 655 pts

At the end of the semester, total points will be divided by points possible. This value will be used to determine the final percentage grade. Letter grades will be assigned to percentages according to the following scale:

Letter Grade / Percentage
A / 94 - 100
A- / 90 - 93
B+ / 87 - 89
B / 84 - 86
B- / 80 - 83
C+ / 77 - 79
C / 74 - 76
C- / 70 - 73
D+ / 67 - 69
D / 64 - 66
D- / 60 - 63
F / 0 - 59

Instructional Methods

Class Format

This course is taught entirely online. Students are expected to think critically about the content and applications, take notes, and use this information to prepare for quizzes. As lectures are viewed, students will need to interact with colleagues and the instructor to seek/provide clarification about the content. This interaction will take place on the course discussion boards. Students should read and contribute to the discussion throughout the semester. There is also a textbook for the course.

All course content, with the exception of the textbook,is available on the course website. To access the D2L website, go to:

When the page has loaded, click "Login." When prompted, enter your user name and password. Your login name is the name of your UWM email account (the part before the "@" sign). After typing your user name, type in your password.

It is absolutely imperative that students regularly check their email and log into the course website throughout each weekly unit (a minimum of every other day). This is necessary to receive any instructions about course content and to participate in the bulletin boards. Students are expected to complete and submit all assignments using this technology.

Course Policies

Attendance

Obviously, there is no classroom to attend so there is no attendance policy. However, students are still accountable for all course content as the evaluations (papers, quizzes, and discussion boards) assume that all material has been reviewed. Failure to complete assignments, view lectures, participate in discussions, and complete other portions of the course will result in a failing grade.

All work must be completed by the deadlines set by the instructor. It is very important that students develop a schedule within which to complete the assignments. For example, it would be a good idea to set aside 3 hours during each week to focus exclusively upon the lecture content, a couple of hours for reading, several hours for online discussion and so forth. Calendar tools are available within D2L and the instructor will provide weekly "checklists" to help facilitate the completion of all portions of each weekly unit. But, ultimately, it is a student’s responsibility to prioritize time so that the course materials can be completed according to the preset deadlines. Note that deadlines for each week's assignments are set at 11:59 pm on each Sunday. Assignments due during a given week will not be accepted after the deadline.

Group Work

As individuals who are either currently in organizational positions or who plan to be in the near future, you must be able to function as an effective member of a team. This course provides you with additional opportunity to refine your group work skills. This means that you must have regular communication with your partners, complete tasks as assigned by the group, adhere to deadlines, and maintain a high quality of output.Occasionally, there are students who feel that they can take advantage of group work by allowing others to complete the work while they stand idly by. If this strategy of loafing is one that you have utilized or plan to utilize, get out of this course as you are a wasting my time and the time of your research partners. If you're not one of these people (and I assume that nobody is!), then we have a policy to help insure that your group members are not tempted to slip into this type of behavior.

Here's the deal. First, this rule does not apply in situations in which a group member has made an "honest" effort to complete a task and has submitted a product of their honest efforts (I will let fellow group members decide whether the work counts as an "honest effort;" see paragraph below). In other words, I will not make a deduction if someone honestly tries to get something done, puts in the hours necessary, but the final product needs some additional work. This is because I have to allow room for learning and the collaborative process that is a part of group work is a learning process. So, I will not penalize anyone if they have made a concerted effort to complete a task.

However, this policy does apply to situations in which someone throws together pure junk and sends it to their group members in hopes that the paragraph above will apply to them. If you are in a group and you've all decided to divide up work, you know when someone is trying hard, but coming up short. If someone is trying and doing actual work, I won't make a deduction and I’m glad that they did so as everyone probably learned something as a result of the person’s effort. But, if someone is just trying make it look like they tried (by sending pure junk, you know it when you see it), I want to know. Everyone here is an adult and I trust you all, so I know that you can make your own decisions about whether a group member is legitimately making an effort or not.

This policy absolutely applies to situations in which group members have lost contact with the group and made no effort to respond to emails and/or telephone calls. A prerequisite for enrollment in this course are regular access to a computer with WWW and email access. So, there is no reason why someone enrolled in 370 should not regularly be in touch with their colleagues.

Here’s the policy: First, do what you have to do to get the papers done on time. If there is a group member who is not staying in touch with you, continually try to contact him/her and if it doesn't work,then just get the paper done to the best of your ability (I can only grade the product that I receive and am not able to be more lenient if this situation arises, so papers--regardless of group issues--are always assessed with standard criteria).

Second, after finishing and submitting the paper, send me an email explaining who did not participate. In the email identify:

• who the person is
• what they did and did not do
• your efforts to contact them and keep them involved
• an approximation of their total contribution to the final paper. Do this by providing a number ranging from 0% to 100% with a 0 being equivalent to no participation at all and 100% being equivalent to doing everything)
• Although this is not a requirement, if there are other members in your group who shared the experience and can corroborate the information, encourage them to contact me

You should send this information in an email addressed to me (). After I review the information, I will adjust the non participating students' grade accordingly. However, I will not be able to share information about whether a deduction was taken or the number of points to other members of the group (I’m legally restricted from doing this).