This week is intended to begin once you finish your mid-term exam. Before the exam,  you should have prepared for that mid-term AND begun reviewing the project proposal assignment due at the end of the semester. Information on that proposal is at the end of the Assignments menu.
Now, we’ll start developing your proposal in earnest. Your first step is to confirm your general topic and prepare for your literature review. This requires some review of the previous reading, some new reading, and a review of your work and the work of your classmates.
As you can see from your checklist below, I have tasked you with a targeted review of some Patten & Newhart sections, all of Part 1 and the start of Part 2.

I also suggest you begin our new text, Duesbery & Twyman. Part 1 should help you see the commonalities between social scientific research and more applied research or action research. Part 2 can help you see how action research can apply to a wide variety of fields and may help you develop your own research idea.
As you complete the assigned reading, take some time for reflection.

• Review your initial post and the first posts of your classmates.
• Consider your reflection on the Diffusion of Innovations and how you individually reflected on how the theory connected to your personal life and actions.
• Consider the employers you researched. Is there particular research you could propose that would prove useful to them?
• What article did you find to review in Week 6? Did it involve research that you still find interesting? Did it suggest future research that you could propose?

As we get started with the latter half of the semester, please take a few minutes to complete the class survey. Each survey is worth one half-point of extra credit.
You have an extra week to complete everything in this weekly module because Spring Break begins on March 22. I hope you find some time to relax and recover from all your hard work so far.

The Week’s Learning Objectives:

1. Compare action research to more traditional research and distinguish the two purposes.
2. Develop a topic for primary research (a new research study)
3. Develop a plan for your secondary research (library research)

Learning Activities:

1. Review research planning questions in Part 1 of Patten and Newhart (2018).
2. Review Topic 12, in Part 2 of the same text, to recall:
   • The importance and prudence of modified and strict replications for beginning researchers.
   • The importance of reviewing previously used methods and measurements for potential replication.
   • The utility of published articles to help your own proposal writing.
   • The general purpose of reviewing the literature AND writing a literature review.
3. Read Duesbery & Twyman (2020) Parts 1 & 2 and consider how your proposal could apply directly to important issues in your field.

Assignments:

1. Week 9 Blog Post: Develop Ideas and Prepare a Search
2. Midterm Class Survey

Week 9 Deadline: Tuesday, March 30 at 2pm CDT

Other Notes: 

Sunday, March 28 is the final day to withdraw from a course with a transcript record of “W.” See the current Academic Calendar for more information.