For Task #1, you will write critiques of five research articles related to a topic of interest to you (worth 20 points). 

Reviewing research literature is an important skill regardless of whether you plan to be a researcher yourself or someone who primarily applies the research findings of others.

Obviously, reviewing the literature related to a research problem is an essential step in the research planning process; it not only informs you about the current research completed by others in this area, but also helps guide the design of your own study.

If you are not going to do research yourself, you still need to be able to apply the research others do. Thus, becoming a critical consumer of research is essential. It helps you to determine when and how you can apply research results in ways that are most useful.  This, in turn, can help you become a more effective practitioner. 

For this task, you will prepare 1-2 page critiques of five research articles related to your research topic.  The articles you review can come from any journal (print or online) as long as it is a refereed publication.  A list of journals in the field of instructional technology can be found at:  (http://designer.50g.com/journals.htm).  Note that some are refereed and some are not.  Your articles must come from refereed sources. You may find articles in journals that are not on this list as long as they are refereed. 

Each critique will be worth 4 points for a total of 20 points.  Here is a sample of a good literature review from the Fall 2003 EDIT 6900 class: Mary Miller's Review. This task will be due on September 28, 2004.  Please submit your literature review as a MS Word document to Professor Reeves. 

Guidelines 
Read each article carefully and write a 1-2 page critique for each article based on your reading.  In writing up your critiques, address the following questions (from Leedy, P. D., & Ormond, J. E. (2001). Practical research: Planning and design (7th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall): 

• Does the article have a stated research question or problem; that is, could you determine the focus of the author's work?
• Is this an article that describes the collection of data, or does it describe and synthesize other studies in which data were collected?
• Is the article logically organized and easy to follow? What could have been done to improve its organization?
• Does the article contain a section that outlines and reviews studies on this topic? In what ways is this previous literature relevant to the research problem?
• If the author explained procedures that were followed in the study, are these procedures clear enough that you could repeat the work and get similar results? What additional information might be helpful or essential for you to replicate the study?
• If data were collected, can you describe how they were collected and how they were analyzed? Do you agree with what was done? What additional things would you have done if you had been the researcher?
• Do you agree with the interpretation of the results? Why or why not?
• Finally, reflect over the entire article.  What is, for you, most important? What do you find most interesting? What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of this article? Will you remember this article in the future? Why or why not?