Project Design: EDIT 7340 Assignment Description

EDIT 7340
Project Design
Assignment Description and Rubric
Mode: Individual
Value: 20 points

updated
8-13-08

Purpose of this Assignment
This is your opportunity to plan your research project and receive feedback on the design.

AASL Standards
4.3 Comprehensive and Collaborative Strategic Planning and Assessment
Other standards may also be involved, depending upon the topic of your research.

Related Themes from this Course

Research methods and techniques
Ethics of research
Applied Project

Task

Provide prior relevant drafts along with your assignment submission.
Restate your Researchable Question, incorporating feedback from that assignment. At this stage, it should be precise and truly researchable. It should be supported by all elements of your study, but that will be evaluated later.
Restate the Importance of your Study, incorporating feedback. You should provide arguments that explain why this study is important, and what difference it will make.
Restate the context of your study, providing enough background for readers to understand your situation.
Identify the overall methodology for your study.
List each data collection technique you expect to use, along with each source of data. Some data sources will be the result of data collection (such as survey results), and others may simply be gathered (like circulation records).
List each instrument or item you must develop for the study. Include surveys, interview protocols, etc. You do not need to develop them at this time. Briefly describe each.
Explain how your data will answer your research question. In this step, it may be necessary to describe what kinds of questions you will ask to give a general idea of the match between data and research question.
Identify who your participants will be (if any), how many (in a range), how they will be selected, and how they will be recruited.
List, in order, the procedures of your study.
Provide a timeline along with your procedures.
Clearly identify the very First Step in your project.
Finally, state how you expect to analyze your data. At this stage, simply explain your overall approach and/or how you will begin.

Guidelines

Concise, bulleted language (rather than narrative) is the most efficient means of communicating your ideas at this stage.
Try to focus on your research question and viable avenues of inquiry to answer that question first. Second, consider pragmatics and logistics. Usually, if the first step is done thoroughly, there will be a way to "shrink" a study down to be practical. In other words, it's easier to start too big and narrow down than vice versa. It is part of the evaluator's task to help you discover if a project is pragmatically feasible or not.
All parts of your design should be consistent with your research question. This sounds obvious, and yet it is a very difficult part of the research process. This so-called internal validity will not be evaluated at this stage, but it is important to keep in mind during the design process.
The new portions of this assignment will receive full credit if complete. The restated portions will be evaluated qualitatively, expecting you to have incorporated feedback from the last round.

Submission Format

Submit to the WebCT dropbox, using filenaming rules. Use this pattern: yourname-design.doc. No prints, please.

Evaluation Rubric

Criterion	Value	Your assessment	MAF's assessment
Research question is precise.	1	.	.
Research question is researchable.	2
Importance of the Study section provides a compelling argument for conducting the study.	1
Study context section is complete enough to give the reader an adequate understanding of the situation.	1	.	.
Data collection techniques are listed.	2
Data sources are listed.	1	.	.
Instruments and/or materials are listed with brief descriptions.	1	.	.
Explanation provided for how data will answer research question.	2
Participants are described. Method of selection and recruitment provided. The target number is provided, stated in a range.	4
Ordered list of procedures provided. First Step is clearly identified.	2
Timeline provided.	1
Analysis plan, briefly stated, is provided.	1
You self-assessed.	1

Total:

Comments:

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Update log: 8/13/08: refreshed for 2008.
2007: 10/3: submission details. 8/15: finished. 8/11: began.

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