EME 7939 – RESEARCH PROPOSAL CRITERIA – SPRING 2006
RP#1
Develop a short concept paper for a unique IT research proposal that addresses an area of interest to you. To do this you will need to state one or more research questions or (if appropriate) research hypotheses that your proposal will address. All questions/hypotheses must be valid in context of IT research (e.g. no simplistic media comparison) and must transcend the level of simple evaluation of an initiative (what Reeves calls “action research”). The research must attempt to illuminate generalizable theory, models, or principles. Organize your concept paper around the following ten questions. Include only as much information in your treatment of question #1 as is necessary to establish and clarify the research questions/hypotheses (ideally, you will have already accomplished this in EME7938.) Devote the major part of your concept paper to questions 2-10: the research design and methods that you propose to employ. If your design is such that these questions don’t apply as worded (e.g. ethnographic & other qualitative designs), then do your best to address comparable issues.
1) State and establish the bases for your research questions/hypotheses.
2) Identify the general research design selected for the study (e.g. experimental, interpretive, developmental, etc.) and describe your rationale for the selection of this design.
3) Identify the important variables potentially affecting the phenomena you are proposing to investigate, classify these variables (independent, dependent, extraneous, etc.), and delineate the method(s) by which critical extraneous variables will be controlled.
4) Describe the sampling strategy you will use and why this strategy is appropriate. What are the sampling units? What sample size have you selected? How did you arrive at this sample size?
5) Identify the instrumentation you will use for data collection. What specific instruments or types of instruments will you design or acquire? What specific factors led you to these choices? To what degree will the instruments be technology-based? (This is a course requirement.) What types of evidence of the reliability and validity of the scores yielded by these instruments will you seek?
6) Describe the general procedures for data collection. What special considerations related to data collection will you take into account in order to insure the integrity of your research?
7) Describe the procedures for data analysis that you will use. What specific statistical or other analyses will you follow? What are the assumptions in the use of these techniques?
8) Describe how you will interpret the data. Specifically identify the elements from your data analysis that will be used to answer your research questions or hypotheses.
9) Describe the limitations to your design (i.e., threats to validity/legitimacy) and how you propose to minimize them.
10) Describe the potential ethical issues that might arise in your research and how you propose to minimize them.
By
Do the following with each of the concept papers that you are assigned to evaluate:
1. Compose a written set of recommendations as if you were the author’s major advisor or research partner
2. Print two copies of your recommendations. One for me. One for the author.
3. Bring both copies to class on February 20. You’ll probably want a 3rd copy for yourself, too.
RP#2
RP#2 should be a refinement of your RP#1. The refinements are based on your ongoing review of literature, feedback received in class, and any other data that you gather to improve your understanding of the inquiry that you wish to pursue. This revision is ideally longer, more complete, more detailed, and more clearly written than the previous revision. Among the additional details you must include a description of at least one technology-based instrument that will serve the study. This instrumentation might deliver instructional treatments that you wish to study, it might measure dependent variables that you wish to study, or it might take other forms. Then you must also include a description of the procedure(s) that you propose to use to demonstrate the validity of the treatments(s) or measure(s) that you will produce with this instrument (as well as any other instruments that you propose, technology-based or otherwise.) Such procedures often involve assessment of the instrument by independent experts, field trials with knowledgeable evaluators, and pilot tests with subjects. This draft will be due March 02.
RP#3
RP#3 should be a refinement of your RP#2. The refinements are based on your ongoing
review of literature, feedback received in class, and any other data that you
gather to improve your understanding of the inquiry that you wish to
pursue. This revision is ideally longer,
more complete, more detailed, and more clearly written than the previous
revision. RP#3 must also be attended by
a functioning prototype of at least one technology-based instrument specified
in your proposal and a refinement of the method(s)
that you propose to employ to provide evidence of the validity of the
treatments(s) or measure(s) produced using the instrument. This will be due March 23. Then, in addition to compiling whatever
general feedback that they deem appropriate to provide you during the
subsequent class session, your assigned reviewers should also generate the data
that you need to implement your validation procedure, serving as expert
reviewers or pilot test subjects, or whatever role makes sense in context of
your plan.
RP#4
RP#4 should be a refinement of your RP#3. The refinements are based on your ongoing review of literature, feedback received in class, and any other data that you gather to improve your understanding of the inquiry that you wish to pursue. This revision is ideally longer, more complete, more detailed, and more clearly written than the previous revision. RP#4 must also incorporate the results of the validation procedure conducted on your technology-based instrument and must be attended by a refined version of the instrument (refinements based on the results of the validation and other feedback that you receive.) Finally, RP#4 must be conveyed by a completed IRB Application for Initial Review. (You should not actually submit the application to IRB.) This will be due April 13.