Competence with course material will be assessed on the basis of how well a student, or group of students, complete a variety of activities. These activities and the percent of the final grade based on each activity are listed below. Additional details on assignments are found below the table.

Grading scale:

Total points	Final Grade
182-200	A
163-181	B
144-162	C
125-143	D
less than 125	F

 
Late Assignments:  READ THIS CAREFULLY
Assignments must be submitted by the due date and time.  Assignments submitted late, but within 24 hours of the date/time due will receive no more than 50% of the possible points earned.  No late assignments will be accepted after that point unless advance notification is given and instructor permission is received by the student for emergency situations. Technological failure is not an excuse for turning in an assignment late or failing to turn in an assignment.  If technological issues interfere with completion of an assignment, you may submit a hard copy, and the student must notify the instructor of the problem when it occurs.

Academic Dishonesty:

• Submitting someone else's work as your own, allowing someone else to submit your work as their work, signing the attendance sheet or logging in on the web for someone other than yourself, and other acts of academic dishonesty will be dealt with as per University guidelines.
• While we encourage group work and study groups, you must clearly distinguish between individual work, collaborative work, and copying someone's work.  If you are given an assignment, and you are told it is an individual assignment, you must work on it by yourself.  Individual work is submitted with your name on it.  Studying together before doing an individual assignment is acceptable, but working together on an individual assignment is not acceptable.
• If you are given an assignment, and you are told it is a group assignment, you are expected to work collaboratively as a group.  Group work is submitted with the name of each group member working on that assignment on the work submitted.
• For citations in your proposal, refer to the APA or AMA manual for rules.
• Under no circumstances are you to put your name on work that you did not do!
There is a zero tolerance policy for academic dishonesty.  Any work determined to be academically dishonest will be given a zero, and may lead to course failure, and/or a recommendation of suspension or dismissal.  See the Student Guidebook for further information about academic dishonesty.  Students should be advised that once such an infraction is reported, further action may be taken by the Department or University that is beyond the instructor's control.

Your final grade for the course will be determined as follows:

        1. Week's Assignments: For each week there may be one or more assignments to complete.  Instructions for these assignments are found in the "Notes from the Instructor". You are graded as an individual for these activities.

          2. Posttests:.
            Posttest questions will be posted on the web board every Tuesday by noon (if a  posttest is being given that week).  The posttest will be on the WebBoard in the "Posttest" conference.  Click on the word "Posttest" to read it.  Whenever there is a posttest,  you are required to send your answers to your designated professor via e-mail before 12:00 p.m. on the next day (Wednesday).  The posttests are open-book, but must be the work of an individual student and not a group project. You are graded as an individual for these posttests.  You will be required to "sign" a statement that you swear that you complete the test within the required period of time, and did all of the work by yourself.

 
        3. Article Assignments:  Each student will be assigned the task of searching for 6 refereed (peer-reviewed) journal articles on the topic of his/her research proposal.  Of the 6 original articles obtained in this literature search, choose 2 articles considered to be the best.  Each student in a research proposal group submits at least these two articles to use in the proposal.
 
 a)  Article Abstract:  You are required to complete an abstract of 1 of your 2 best journal  articles.  Directions for completing an abstract and for this entire assignment can be found by linking to ABSTRACT.
You are graded as an individual for this activity.

 b) Article Critique:  You are required to complete a critique of a journal  article.  To ensure that the article you critique meets certain criteria, the faculty will have selected at least 5 journal articles from which you must select one to critique. See CRITIQUE.  Follow the guidelines and answer all questions. You are graded as an individual for this activity.
 
 

        4. Research Proposal:  As a group of 5-6 students, you are required to complete a  written research proposal as a final product for this course. You are graded on your work for this proposal in a variety of ways; some graded on your individual performance, and others graded on the group's submitted work:

            a) Midterm consultation/presentation:  Each group will give a 15 minute presentation of their work on the Introduction section of the proposal to course faculty as part of a  midterm consultation/presentation.  Students are required to come to campus to participate in this presentation scheduled on Wednesday, June 14, 2000- room and time TBA.  A midterm open-book cumulative quiz is also scheduled on this date. The purpose of the consultation/ presentation is two-fold.  First, the faculty will grade each student on their familiarity with the steps taken in the process of writing a research proposal up to that point.  The second purpose for this activity is for the faculty to provide critical feedback to the group on their progress, and make suggestions for how the group should proceed with this activity.  Students will come on campus to give their presentations. Students are graded as  individuals for this activity.  Grades are based on presentation as well as participation on the web and/or in class in the activities that lead up to the presentation.  Students are not required to conduct all of the group communication on the web.  Groups have used either face-to-face meetings, the phone, the web, or combinations of these modes of communication to share information.  However, you must post your own individual contributions to the proposal on the web to facilitate sharing of your work and grading.

            b) Final research proposal presentation:  Your group will also present your final research proposal to the faculty and your classmates.  Your classmates and faculty will review your  presentation, providing critical feedback. Students are required to come to campus to give their presentations, and the faculty will schedule a room and time for this activity (7/19- room and time TBA). You are graded as an individual for this activity.  Your grade is based on your presentation as well as your participation on the web in the activities that lead up to the presentation.  You must post your own individual contributions to the proposal on the web to facilitate sharing of your work and grading. A final cumulative open-book quiz is also scheduled on this date (7/19/00).

            c) Written Research Proposal:  As a research proposal group, you are required to complete a written research proposal as a final product for this course.  This writen proposal will be submitted in sections as draft work throughout the semester.  The final written proposal will be submitted as one final docment on the date of the final presentation.  This assignment has been found to be very valuable in helping students assimilate and apply material from this course. You will also notice that by combining the individual and group parts of your grade related to the proposal, this proposal accounts for about half of your grade in this course. This assignment is broken down into 2 sections:  the introduction section and the method section.  The required components of each section vary depending on the quantitative or qualitative nature of  the proposal.
 

  I)  The Introduction Section:  This assignment includes the following:

   For quantitative research proposals, the introduction section of the proposal must include the following components:

   * the purpose of the study
   * the literature review
   * the identified theoretical framework
   * the research question
   * the identification of variables
   * the hypothesis
   * the reference list
 

   For qualitative research proposals, the introduction section of the proposal must include the following components:

   * the purpose of the study
   * the literature review
   * the researcher's perspective or common shared experience on this topic
   * the research question
   * the general area(s) of interest
   * the reference list

You are graded on the group's product.

  II)  The Method Section:  This assignment includes the following:

   For quantitative research proposals, the methods section of the proposal must include the following components:

   * the type of design
   * the sampling strategy
   * consideration of legal and ethical issues
   * the measurement instrument, including its reliability and validity
   * the feasibility of the study
   * how data would be analyzed, including the use of statistical applications
   * the conclusion, including how you would consider implications,  limitations, and recommendations

   For qualitative research proposals, the methods section of the proposal must include the following components:

   * the type of qualitative method
   * a definition of the parameters of saturation
   * consideration of legal and ethical issues
   * the decision on how data will be collected, including interviews or observations, or a combination of both,
        with examples or possible sceniarios, as well as measures taken to ensure accuracy in data collection
   * the feasibility of the study
   * how data would be analyzed
   * the conclusions, including how you would consider implications, limitations, and recommendations

You are graded on the group's product.

            d) Week's activities:  This includes weekly web board assignments, in-class and other web board or e-mail activities as described below.
 
I) Weekly web board activities: You may be assigned activities to complete on the web board. Details on these assignments will be given in class to on-campus students, and in the "Notes from the instructor" for the off-campus students.

II) In-class activities: Students in the on-campus section will complete some activities in class, whereas the distributive learner participants will complete many of those activities on the web.
 
 

 You are graded as an individual for these activities.
 
 
            e) Self and Peer Assessment: Since students working in a group observe the work behaviors of the members of the group, students are required to make an honest, ethical, and thoughtful assessment of the group behavior skills of all members.  The purpose of the assignment is for the student to assess his/her own work behavior as well as that of group mates.  The instructions for this activity and the form used are available through this link:

See: Self and Peer Assessment of Group Behavior Skills

Your grade is based on the sum of your self assessments and the assessments by each other member of the group.  The professor reserves the right to contribute to this grade based on observed behaviors in class, on the web, or in the presentations.

Teamwork:  The main activity of this course is the research proposal.  Essentially every activity in this course is preparing, teaching or guiding you to be able to write that proposal.  Contribute to the team effort to get this task done well.  Research is typically a team activity that requires cooperation and an awareness of not only what your team is working on, but also familiarity with the research endeavors of others.  One of the main goals of research is the sharing of information.  In order to model these behaviors, we designed this course to encourage collaborative work, and the reading and critiquing of the work of others.  Do not look at these activities as busy work, but an opportunity to learn from others, and to practice critiquing the work of others.  These are commonplace activities in the world of research.  Don't think of yourself as merely an individual who learns by reading a book or journal.  Soon you will join your chosen profession, and you should see yourself as one who learns from colleagues, teaches colleagues, and contributes to the body of knowledge of your profession.  Through these activities, you truly join your profession.