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Week #5 VCS Alternative Assignment (VCSA)
DOC 715:Prospectus
Professor: Schahrzade Rezvani
April 10, 2025
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Week #6 VCS Alternative Assignment (VCSA)
The main point of this week’s DOC 715 class was to have a clearer idea of the nature of
the research study, research ethics and practicing for our final prospectus presentations. After a
kick off with our favorite stretch of the session: having everybody share their favorite places in
the world, great icebreaker to create community and personal connection, we started by asking
our traditional philosophical question. The professor then shifted to the key assignment for the
week 6, namely, to draft a three page paper on the study methodology, research design and data
collection and analysis the process. We pointed out that one should bring this section line up
with the entire research structure and, in particular, with specificity on instruments and participant selection.
For example, along with this, seeing the TED Talk on the ethics of academic research
was a big part of the class. She discussed problems in the publish world, publishing pressure, and
fraud amongst others, as well as lack of see through walls, and encouraged openness as a way of
promoting open science and in collaboration. The research sparked discussion surrounding ethics
of the research and the necessity of such reproducibility. This somehow directly related to our
CITI Certification as well as our soon to be IRB requirements.
From there, we wrapped up the class by having a team based ethical case study activity. A group was given the task to do research on historical example of unethical studies and
one was selected to present. It involved protecting research participants and assuring that our
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methodology is sound in terms of being ethically sound and sociable. The professor thus explained the requirements of the week 7 and 8 presentation, and gave the hint of time volunteers to
present very early to get peer’s feedback and to be sure that the prospective is consisted in every
part. In most cases, this session enhanced the ethical, realistic, and structural bases of the responsible and thorough dissertation research.