ADMN 502A Instructors: Michelle Brady & Lindsay Tedds Syllabus
ADMN 502A– R
ESEARCH
D
ESIGN
: C
RITICAL
A
PPRAISAL OF
I
NFORMATION
S
S CHOOL OF P UBLIC A DMINISTRATION , U NIVERSITY OF V ICTORIA
Instructor: Michelle Brady
Office: A350 HSD
Phone: 250.721.8063
Office Hours: Wednesday 10:30am-
12:00pm
Course website: moodle.uvic.ca
Instructor: Prof. Lindsay M. Tedds
Office: A346 HSD
Phone: 250.721.8068
Skype: lindsay.tedds
Office Hours: Monday 1:30-3:00pm
Course Website: moodle.uvic.ca
Understanding how research is structured and conducted is a vital skill in the public sector. This course introduces students to essential skills and components of the research process, weaknesses and strengths. Key issues in research ethics and design are explored including: research and data validity, measurement, qualitative methods, sampling, survey research techniques, questionnaire design, research design, measures of central tendency, dispersion, correlation and computerbased analyses (University of Victoria Calendar).
The principal purpose of ADMN 502A is student-empowerment through critical understanding of knowledge and the process of acquiring and synthesizing knowledge. The goal is to help you acquire the skills, knowledge, and experience necessary to complete your 598 reports as well as prepare you for the work you may encounter on your coop work terms. The course will help you improve your ability to critically assess information using a variety of tools and perspectives and to synthesize information into an easily digestible form from the perspective of a professional public administrator/policy analyst.
The course provides a broad survey of different qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and aspects of research design and their relationship to research related to public administration and policy development: it is not designed to generate extensive expertise and experience in the use of methodologies and research design. By the end of the course students should begin reflecting upon their own methodological preferences, and what further training they need to undertake to become proficient in the conduct of such research. This may include taking a general or specific research methodology course in this or another department.
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ADMN 502A: S YLLABUS

The overarching objective of the course is to familiarize students with the process of and research required to complete their 598 reports. By the end of the course, students should be able to demonstrate proficiency in:
•
Strategically locating, selecting, using, and reviewing key research from a broad mixture of sources;
•
Effectively synthesizing and assessing research sources to summarize purpose, content,
& conclusions of literature coherently and accurately;
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Identifying, describing, analyzing, and interpreting the results from various qualitative and quantitative research methods;
•
Compiling and organizing the pieces in a stand-alone document;
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Clear, unbiased, & objective approach to and communication of research;
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Working in groups; and
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Technical policy writing.
There are three main assignments in this course.
Group Scoping Review
Individual 598 Critique
Individual Class Notes & Group Wiki Pages
50%
36%
14%
Additional details are available by clicking on the Assignment Instructions icon on Moodle.
This course is delivered on campus. Each section meets weekly for three hours. Classes are a combination of lectures, discussions, and group work activities. Students are advised to bring their lap tops and project materials to classes.
Unit 1: Introduction & Overview of Course
Unit 2: Getting Started in Research
Unit 3: Locating, assessing, and tracking research material
Unit 4: Organizing your research & the research proposal
Unit 5: Reviewing the Literature & philosophical issues in research
Unit 6: Five Common Research Designs in Public Administration Part I
Unit 7: Five Common Research Designs in Public Administration Part II
Unit 8: Four Common Data Collection Methods in Public Administration
Unit 9: Qualitative Data Analysis: Four Major Approaches
Unit 10: Human Research Ethics & Introduction to Quantitative Data Analysis
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Unit 11: Quantitative Data Analysis: Tables, Graphs, & Numbers
Unit 12: No Class if Material Covered
Unit 13: Course Wrap-up
There is no required text for this class. Readings will be made available through the class
Moodle website and the library e-reserve.
You will need to be familiar with APA citation & editorial style. Additional technology may be used in relation to the assignments e.g. wikis, word processing software, spreadsheet software.
Moodle is a software tool for producing Internet-based courses and web sites. Moodle allows us to present a course containing information resources (textual and tabular information, photographs and diagrams, videos, audio recordings, web pages, acrobat documents and many others) and student activities such as uploadable assignments, quizzes, user polls, forums and others.
All ADMN 502A course content is available on Moodle. All written assignments must be submitted electronically using Moodle unless otherwise instructed. Further, all course-based discussions and questions that are not held in class or during office hours will be held on
Moodle. Please post all questions to the Questions for Instructor Forum. The instructors will post all general course messages in the Instructor Messages Forum.
To login into Moodle, go to http://moodle.uvic.ca
) and use your NetLink ID and Password to
Login. ADMN 502A should be listed as an available course if you are registered in the course.
If you are registered and the course is not listed, please contact Moodle support: http://www.moodlehelp.uvic.ca/student/index.php
.
Students will be given a brief tour of Moodle during the first class but students are responsible for learning how to navigate Moodle. To obtain an overview of Moodle as well as learn how to use Moodle, please review the Moodle Student Orientation Demo Course, http://moodle.uvic.ca/course/view.php?id=26 , and/or review the Moodle Navigation document, http://moodle.uvic.ca/file.php/26/PDF/MoodleNavigation.pdf
. Students should also review the
Moodle Student Guide, http://moodlehelp.uvic.ca/student/index.php
.
Of note, all students should ensure that your preferences are set such that you can track unread forum posts. Information on how to do so is here: http://moodlehelp.uvic.ca/instructor/unreadforumposts.php
In addition, students can set up their Moodle preferences such that they receive emails when new content is added to a Moodle forum (either each time or in a daily digest). Simply click on the
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Forums link on the left had side of the page in Course Menus and click on the button in the
Subscribed column to change it to Yes. To change the way the information is emailed to you, simply change the requisite options in your Moodle profile.
However, you should ensure that the email address you have provided to Uvic and entered into
Moodle is correct. If the email attached to your Moodle profile is incorrect, do not change your email in Moodle. This will have no effect. Instead, you need to change the email address that is in your usource profile. Information on how to do this is here: http://moodlehelp.uvic.ca/student/email.php
Most of our communication will occur in class or in office hours. Both instructors hold weekly office hours and any student can visit these office hours. During these office hours, we are available in person, by phone, or other means as noted in the details at the top of this document.
Office hours are on a first come, first serve basis. Both instructors do accept appointments outside of office hours but only if necessary and if an acceptable date and time can be arranged.
All written communication must take place in Moodle. With respect to text-based messages through the Moodle system, the instructors try to answer all questions within 48h during the week. Although we may be able to answer questions on evenings and weekends, one should not expect an answer.
Please follow this guideline to ask questions on Moodle:
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All questions should be asked in Moodle in the General Questions & Answers forum.
By asking questions publicly on Moodle, there are several benefits: (1) Our understanding of questions usually increases when we are forced to write it down; (2)
The answer remains on the Moodle for the duration of the course; (3) Other people benefit from questions and their answer. Additionally, any student is welcome to post a response to any questions in Moodle.
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Questions that are only relevant for you and the instructor and are personal/private in nature should be asked through the private message tool in Moodle. The private messages are intended to be used sporadically and only for issues that are truly private in nature.
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The phone shall be the contact method of last resort outside of office hours.
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At no point should students email the instructors outside of the Moodle environment regarding course material once the Moodle site is functional. Emails of this nature will not receive a response.
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Inba Kehoe is the Public Administration librarian and she can help you locate various research materials, including statistics, and with literature searches. Students are strongly encouraged to use this valuable resource in preparing assignments in this course.
Inba will be attending our class on September 21. In addition, Inba can be contacted as follows:
Inba Kehoe ikehoe@uvic.ca
250-472-5017
Students should be aware that the library has recently developed a new subject guide tool and the links for public administration are provide below:
The link to the new public admin guide: http://webapp.library.uvic.ca/subsplus/subjects/display.php?subject=Public%20Administration
Finally, the library has also developed a Research Help Guide: http://library.uvic.ca/site/research/index.html
It is assumed in this course that you can write a well organized and coherent paper which is grammatically correct, spelled checked, logical, and presents a well-structured composition. This is the minimum requirement to obtain a grade of at least a B on any written assignment. If this assumption is unwarranted for you or if you struggle with writing in this program due to the wide breadth of writing styles used in public administration classes, consider using the Writing Center to help with writing problems. The Writing Centre (TWC) helps refine academic and professional writing skills: http://www.ltc.uvic.ca/servicesprograms/twc/students.php
. Members of The Writing Centre will be running workshops in our class on October 5 and 19 to help you complete your Scoping Reviews.
We also urge you to use other students to review drafts of your work.
Students are encouraged to inform the instructors of any issues with the course. For example, the instructors are eager to hear from students as to what is working, what is not working, what changes would improve the effectiveness of the course, and how the course could be improved for this course term and for the next time it is taught. I am usually able to make some modifications during the course if we find something is not quite working well to achieve the prescribed learning goals. The earlier issues are identified the stronger the likelihood that the course can be modified during the term. Students who provide constructive comments to the instructors will be neither penalized nor rewarded. At the end of the course, the students will fill out a standard course evaluation.
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ADMN 502A– R
ESEARCH
D
ESIGN
: C
RITICAL
A
PPRAISAL OF
I
NFORMATION
C
& P
P
S CHOOL OF P UBLIC A DMINISTRATION , U NIVERSITY OF V ICTORIA
There are several course and program policies that are in place that students should be aware.
The standards and reputation of this University are the shared responsibility of its faculty and student body. Students are expected to observe the same standards of scholarly integrity as their academic and profession counterparts. Academic dishonesty consists of misrepresentation by deception or by other fraudulent means and can result in serious consequences, e.g. the grade of zero on an assignment, loss of credit with a notation on the transcript (notation reads: "Grade of
F assigned for academic dishonesty"), and/or suspension or expulsion from the University.
It is your responsibility to understand what constitutes academic dishonesty. Students should acquaint themselves with the University’s policies on plagiarism, cheating and examination impersonation. The following illustrates only three forms of academic dishonesty:
1. Plagiarism, e.g. the submission of work that is not one's own or for which other credit has been obtained.
2. Improper collaboration.
3. Copying or using unauthorized aids in tests and examinations.
Please note carefully that plagiarism is not just an academic concern. Copying others' work without appropriate attribution is unacceptable in government and private industry.
As the primary component of grades in this course if based on the completion of written work, students are strongly advised to ensure that they fully understand what constitutes plagiarism.
Plagiarism is one of the most serious breaches of academic integrity and shall be dealt with as such by the instructor, the School, and the University. Please ensure that you are familiar with the School’s Plagiarism policy: http://publicadmin.uvic.ca/mpa/policies/plagiarism.pdf.
Every year, there are several cases of plagiarism that occur within the school. I would prefer to not have to deal with such issues but I do take egregious cases of plagiarism very seriously.
Please do not be tempted to try your luck. Too much is riding on your futures to engage in such behaviour. In addition, much of the work in this course is group work hence one group member’s actions will dramatically affect all students in that group. Further, a key element that affects your grade on your written work is exemplary research. Finding, using, and properly citing a source is amply rewarded in this course. If you have any questions or concerns regarding plagiarism and proper citation, please do not hesitate to contact the instructor.
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Students should be aware that the University of Victoria subscribes to Turnitin.com which is a plagiarism detection software program. Information on Turnitin.com can be found here: http://turnitinhelp.uvic.ca/faq/faq.php
.
We will use Turnitin.com in ADMN 502A. In submitting your Initial Scoping Review and
Critical Analysis, the Moodle link will direct you to Turnitin.com. Other written work may be submitting to the tool by the instructor either randomly or due to concerns.
The purpose of using Turnitin.com is not to catch plagiarism but to avoid plagiarism. Students are encouraged to use the tool to verify that all material contained in their written work represents original work. By submitting the work to Turnitin.com prior to submitting the work for a grade will allow students the opportunity to make any changes to text prior to submitting any written work for a final grade. Working through this process will also highlight any questions regarding proper citation and quotation. Since there is a significant weight put on group work in this class, it will also help groups ensure that no one member is plagiarising material.
The use of Turnitin.com also makes the process of plagiarism detection transparent and shifts the burden of checking for plagiarism from me to an automated process. If I were to not use
Turnitin.com, I would simply use Google, Google scholar, Google books, and other internet search tools and do the work of Turnitin.com; hence, from an opportunity cost standpoint,
Turnitin.com represents a utility maximizing/cost minimizing decision on my part. Turnitin.com also corrects a market failure in the course by equalizing information between and across students and the instructor.
Each piece of assessment in the course will be graded on a percentage scale. These percentage marks will then be weighted, as noted in the Assessment section above, into a single numerical score that will be converted to a letter grade.
In general , a grade of B will be assigned to work that demonstrates average competence and grasp of the material, and which is well presented and well written. The work is then assessed as to whether the work demonstrates additional competencies. The following guide is provided to help students further understand the relationship between a letter grade and the expected quality of submitted work.
Faculty of Graduate Studies - Grading Scale
Grade Grade Point
Value
A+ 9
Percentage
90-100%
Description Achievement of Assignment
Objectives
Exceptional work Technically flawless and original work demonstrating insight, understanding and independent
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A 8 85-89.9% application or extension of course expectations; often publishable
Outstanding work Demonstrates a very high level of integration of material demonstrating insight, understanding and independent application or extension of course expectations
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
D
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
80-84.9%
75-79.9%
70-74.9%
65-69.9%
60-64.9%
55-59.9%
50-54.9%
Excellent work
Very good work
Represents a high level of integration, comprehensiveness and complexity, as well as mastery of relevant techniques/concepts
Represents a satisfactory level of integration, comprehensiveness, and complexity; demonstrates a sound level of analysis with no major weaknesses
Acceptable work that fulfills the expectations of the course
Represents a satisfactory level of integration of key concepts/procedures. However, comprehensiveness or technical skills may be lacking
Unacceptable work revealing some deficiencies in knowledge, understanding or techniques
Represents an unacceptable level of integration, comprehensiveness and complexity. Mastery of some relevant techniques or concepts lacking. Every grade of 4.0 (B-) or lower in a course taken for credit in the Faculty of Graduate Studies must be reviewed by the supervisory committee of the student and a recommendation made to the Dean of Graduate Studies. Such students will not be allowed to register in the next session until approved to do so by the Dean.
F 0 <50% Failing grade. Unsatisfactory performance. Wrote final examination and completed course requirements.
Final letter grades are reviewed by the Director of the School of Public Administration before being released to students via usource.
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Due to flaws in the Moodle Gradebook tool, grades will not be inputted into the Moodle gradebook system. Students are expected to keep track of their own grades.
Students should be aware that grades are not based upon effort, rights, rewards, or negotiations.
Rather they are based on a sufficient mastery of the material. While you may find that your end performance in this class may prevent you from moving on with your future endeavours according to your plans, you need to recognize that your performance in this class was your responsibility. Students are also advised that the instructor will not negotiate your grade with you, and will not offer you any extra credit, alternate exams, paper rewrites, or other opportunities to raise your grade.
That said, errors in grading and judgment do occur and students may appeal any grade assigned in this course. Students appealing their grade for any term work must submit their appeal within
5 days of their mark becoming available. If you wish to appeal a grade, you must provide a written summary of your argument to the instructor. The rationale must make direct reference to the written work in question and any applicable assignment instructions and grading criteria noted above. The instructor will review your written argument, the written work, and will reassess the grade in its entirety. A meeting will then be arranged by the instructor with the student. A third party, selected by the instructor, will be present at the meeting to mediate the discussion. The decision reached at this meeting is final. If you wish to pursue a grade related matter further, please consult the relevant section of the Calendar for information regarding the grade appeals process.
Late assignments, unless arranged well in advance with and approved by the instructors, will not be accepted and will receive a mark of zero. If a late submission is approved and depending on the rationale provided, assignments may be penalized 10% per 24 hours past the due date.
Please note that all assignment dates are clearly noted, hence poor planning on your part, does not constitute an emergency on the instructors part and is not an acceptable reason for seeking an extension.
Our philosophy of teaching places us as a facilitator, coordinator and motivator. We view our role as helping you learn the material rather than teach you the material. The learning approach used in this course is to demonstrate course content by presenting students with a real-world opportunity in which they apply the content. That is, students will learn the content through activities and assignments and by sharing information. Responsibility rests with the students for reading the assigned material and completing course assignments.
While class time will be allocated to help you apply course content each student is expected to spend approximately 10-12 hours per week outside of class time contributing to assignments and
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reading assigned material. At certain times in the term, you will have to manage more than once activity at a time. To do so requires you to develop time management skills.
Access to a number of resources to help students succeed in this class have been arranged. This includes the instructor, librarians, and the writing centre. The role of these individuals is to guide, assist, discuss, suggest and mentor rather than to transfer mere information; however, the onus is on the student to seek out the necessary individuals for feedback, guidance, assistance, etc., as it relates to their project. In particular, if you are having problems, please let us know by asking questions, describing the problem you are having, or seeing me in my office hours. If no questions are being asked, we are forced to assume that students are managing the information and assignments with no difficulty.
Students will be allocated into groups comprising of up to five members each. Students are expected to work on all course material as well as the group assignments in their assigned groups. Groups may allocate the work amongst members as they see fit provided that all members share the total burden of the course equitably and all members of the group agree to the allocation such that it will not negatively affect the peer evaluations (see assignment details).
All students are also reminded that we are here to help all groups complete the best reports possible but it is up to you to seek out our assistance. We cannot help, and hence should not be blamed, if we are unaware of difficulties being faced by students and/or groups.
The MPA program at the University of Victoria uses teams, in whole or in part, to deliver assignments. In addition, the MPA program is writing intensive. These features are also present in this course: teams are used extensively and there is a significant focus on communicating in writing. During orientation, students were exposed to information related to working in teams, writing skills, and collaborative writing. Dr. Lynne Siemens will be giving a presentation on
September 9, 2009 on how to work in groups. Students are expected to apply the acquired knowledge when working in their groups in this class.
While in most cases all group members will receive the same grade for scoping review project, the instructors reserve the right to give different grades if there is a significant difference in the contribution made by each member. Groups are responsible to initiating such a request and for compiling documentation and evidence in support of such a request. Once a request has been made and the evidence appears to support the request, a meeting with all group members, the instructor, and the grad advisor will be scheduled and attendance at such a meeting in mandatory.
If any member is not present, a decision will be taken in their absence.
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There are a number of tools that teams can use, free of charge, to aid team collaboration beyond exchanging emails. These include, but are not limited to:
•
Skype: www.skype.com
which allows registered members to talk, chat, and video call for free over the internet;
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Google Talk: http://www.google.com/talk/#utm_source=en-etmore&utm_medium=et&utm_campaign=en which allows registered members to chat and talk over the internet free of charge;
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Google Docs: https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=writely&passive=true&nui=1& continue=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2F&followup=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.goo
gle.com%2F&ltmpl=homepage&rm=false which allows registered members to share and edit documents without email free of charge and to finalize their work into a word or other formatted document;
•
Pbwiki: http://pbworks.com/ which allows registered members to create a collaborative wiki page and share documents.
•
Refworks: http://library.uvic.ca/site/lib/instruction/refworks/index.html
which allows users to create, store, and manage citations.
Teams are encouraged to use one or more of these methods to work on their group assignments.
The instructor has used all of these tools when collaborating with other researchers on papers and finds them invaluable for collaborative writing and researching.
Our experience of late has been that most if not all students now have laptops or other devices with wireless capacity. Students are strongly encouraged (advised) to bring their laptops or other personal device to this class; however, these should be used for course work and not for your general entertainment.
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ADMN 502A Instructors: Michelle Brady & Lindsay Tedds Syllabus
ADMN 502A: S YLLABUS
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