Y520 is an introduction for beginning graduate students to the
purpose and means of the various practices of educational research.
This course will acquaint you with the language of social science
research, with different understandings of the purpose and use of
research, with various ways of framing research questions and
designing studies, and with generally accepted procedures for
generating, analyzing and interpreting data.

Requirements:

A. Two exams (50% of final grade).
Purpose: To provide feedback and evaluate student understanding of
concepts and terminology. Forced choice, online format.  Exams will
be posted in Oncourse (Tools).  You will need to allow approximately
a 3 hour block to complete the exam on the week when the exam is
posted.  Once you enter the system to take the exam, you will not be
allowed to reenter the system.  Sample exams will be posted prior to
the exam being graded so you can practice using Oncourse and see
examples of the questions.

B. Article Reviews (10%): DUE June 2 and June 9. See Schedule for
more information.
Purpose: To recognize and evaluate the research process.  Two
articles will be provided in class.  Write a 2 page review.  More
information will be provided in class the Schedule.

C. Original Research Proposal (30%): See Schedule for more information
Purpose: To provide students with the opportunity to apply the
research process to a specific area.  This requirement will be
divided into two phases:
Annotated Biblography (10%) will be due by JUNE 5
A literature review with proposal (20%) will be due for peer review
JUNE 11 and the final project due by JUNE 17

D. Participation(10%):
Purpose: To facilitate understanding through interactions with peers
and instructor. As a web-based course, discussions will occur through
the following means:
- A CD with various types of exercises is provided with your text.
The exercises provide you with the opportunity to check your
understanding of the material covered in the textbook.  We will not
specifically cover this material in our chats or other assignments so
this is largely independent work that you should complete by the
designated timeline posted on this syllabus.
- Weekly online chat room (Wed. 7:00-8:00) Bloomington Indiana time.
- You will need to regularly check the Oncourse announcements to see
if there are any additional assignments.  On most weeks, a quiz,
article review, or discussion question will be posted for students to
complete before class meetings (either in the chat room or for on-
line discussions).
Evaluation criteria:
A - consistent, meaningful contributions to class - asks questions
and/or makes comments that clarify, explain or add insight to course
content.
B - consistent attendance, participation.
C - consistent attendance, little or no contribution to class
discussion.
D/F - shows little effort, poor attendance.

Grading:  93% mastery or above = A, 90% to 92% = A-, 87% to 89% = B+,
83% to 86% = B, 80% to 82% = B-, 77% to 79% = C+, 73% to 76% = C, 70%
to 72% = C-, below 70% = D, and below 60% = F

Incompletes will be given only for a legitimate reason as outlined in
the university's Academic Guide, and only after a conference between
the instructor and the student. Throughout the course, you may
contest grades awarded within 48 hours. Once this "statute of
limitation" has passed, it is assumed that you willingly accept the
grade(s) assigned without further dispute.

This schedule is a guide for the semester.  Any changes will be
discussed or posted in class throughout the session.

Date 	
Readings	
Topic	
Chats/Assignments

May 13	
Introduction
Chapter 1-5, 24	
Introduction, Nature of Ed. Research, Research Problems, Ethics,
Variables and Hypotheses, Literature Review, Proposals	
Introduction/Overview

May 15	
Chapter 6-8	
Sampling, Instrumentation, Reliability and Validity	

May 20	
Chapter 10-11	Descriptive Statistics, Inferential Statistics	
Go over homework.
Review for exam.

May 22	
Chapter 12	
Statistics in Perspective	

May 27	
Exam 1	
Exam must be taken by noon.
Go over exam

May 29	
Chapter 9, 13-14	
Internal Validity, Experimental Research	

June 3	
Chapter 15	
Correlational Research	
Go over article review
Article critique due

June 5	
Chapter 16	
Causal-Comparative Research	Annotated bibliography due

June 10	
Chapter 17	
Survey Research	
Discuss papers
Article critique due

June 12	
Chapter 18-19	
Qualitative Research	

June 17	
Chapter 20-23	Content Analysis, Ethnographic Research, Historical
Research, Action Research Go over article review
Final Proposal due

June 19	
Exam 2	
Exam must be taken by noon.