Seminar Presentation - Research Report
The goal of this assignment is to introduce you to a number of research designs and methods. You will study one topic in depth and become familiar with several others through the class presentations.
A list of possible topics is attached. If you are interested in something that is not listed, the instructor is happy to discuss an alternative.
You will have approximately thirty minutes for your presentation. Five to ten minutes of this time should be devoted to questions and discussion.
At class in the week before the presentation, you should provide all your study group members with a reference to an article/book chapter, etc. to read before the seminar. This item should not be from the course textbook. At the presentation, you should distribute a description of the design/method and a short annotated list of recommended readings. This handout, exclusive of the reading list, should not exceed two pages.
Peer Assessment
Students will be divided into four groups of ten students. Think of this group as a study group to whom you will be presenting information about research methods. Topics should be selected so that there is no overlap of topics within each group.
Student presentations will be assessed by the other members of the study group. The assessors will write comments based on the criteria listed below and will assign a grade. An evaluation sheet will be provided. Students should also refer to the Standards for Course Grades below to guide them in these evaluations. The evaluation must be returned to the instructor by the following week's class. The grade for your presentation will be an average of the grades assigned by your nine peer assessors.
Following is the presentation schedule:
May 2nd - three presentations
May 9th - four presentation
May 16th - three presentations
All presentation will take place from 11:30AM - 1:50PM. Presentations will occur in EE1 003 or breakout rooms in Mary Gates Hall (details to follow).
Data collection methods
Self-administered questionnaires
Structured interviews and interviewing techniques
Content analysis Participant observation
Repertory grid
Critical incident method
In-depth interview
Designs/Approaches
Quasi-experiments
Grounded theory
Qualitative case study
Action research
Discourse analysis
Network analysis
Other
Children: interviewing and self-administered questionnaires
Measuring attitudes or satisfaction
Sampling in Qualitative Studies
Criteria for evaluation empirical qualitative research
Graphical presentation techniques
Critical theory in Communication and Information Studies
Content:
1. a clear, concise description of the design/method;
2. clear, concise presentation of the limitations and strengths of the design/method
3. clear description of how you might use the design/method or why it is not useful.
4. brief description of criteria for assessing quality of design/method.
Presentation skills and handouts:
1. helpfulness of the pre-reading in preparing you, the participant, for the seminar
2. ability to maintain interest
3. ability to stimulate questions and/or discussion
4. quality of any overheads or other presentation techniques
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Numerical Grade |
Interpretive Statement |
| 4.0 | Excellent and exceptional work for a graduate student; work at this level is creative, thorough, well reasoned, insightful, well written, and shows clear recognition and an incisive understanding of the salient issues. Work of good professional quality. |
| 3.7 | Strong work for a graduate student; although not quite of good professional quality, work at this level shows some signs of creativity, is thorough and well reasoned, and demonstrates clear recognition and good understanding of the salient issues. |
| 3.3 | Competent and sound work for a graduate student; well reasoned and thorough, but not especially creative or insightful (or creativity is poorly developed); shows adequate understanding of the issues, although that understanding may be somewhat incomplete. This is the graduate student grade that indicates neither exceptional strengths nor exceptional weakness; hence it is the grade for "standard" graduate student performance. |
| 3.0 | Adequate work for a graduate student; moderately thorough and well reasoned, but some indication that understanding of the important issues is less than complete and perhaps inadequate in other respects, but the work is above the minimal expectations for the course. |
| 2.7 | Borderline work for a graduate student; barely meets the minimal expectations for the course; understanding of salient issues is incomplete and overall performance, if consistently at this level, would be below the level of adequate graduate level performance. |
Content -
1. the objectives or hypotheses
2. the major concept(s) and conceptual definition(s)
3. the major variables and operational definitions
4. the measurement instrument, for example the self-administered questionnaire or content analysis sheets
5. a description of the research design, for example a quantitative case study, an experiment.
6. a definition of the population (group of interest) and a short discussion of the sampling methods you would use in a larger scale study. The method for selecting participants for the pilot study should also be described.
7. a description of the data collections methods
8. the presentation of the results
9. a discussion and interpretation of the results, i.e. what they mean to you, and any limitations or concerns, for example ethical, validity, reliability.
10. conclusions
General Comments -
It is recommended that you work in groups of two or three. You should plan the study together and share responsibilities.
It is important to remember that this is a small-scale pilot study. One or two concepts are enough, and you are not expected to conduct a "perfect" study. That's impossible anyway.
You should aim for a sample of no less than 20; 40 would be excellent but may not be possible. Sample size itself has no influence on the grade, if you have at least 20. At the margin a larger sample size might lead to a higher grade because you have more opportunity to see patterns and differences in the data. There are, however, many other ways to show that your report is satisfactory or more than satisfactory.
Your project may be on any topic relevant to library and information studies and practice. If you have not thought of something of interest by the end of the second week, please talk to me.
1. evidence of understanding the research process
2. the appropriateness of
- the concepts and their definitions for the problem at hand
- the research design
- the data collection instrument
3. the validity and reliability of the data collection instrument
4. the appropriateness of the population and the clarity of its definition
5. the appropriateness of the proposed sampling plan not the appropriateness of the method used for your pilot study.
6. assessment of major strengths and limitations of the study, including some discussion of reliability and validity.
7. clear and concise description of design methods
8. presentation of the report including its conformity to social science conventions, eg table construction and labelling, and its neatness.
1. selection of technically appropriate methods of data analysis
2. analysis of data so that it addresses the objectives or hypotheses
3. accurate data analysis
4. interpretation and conclusions consistent with the data and based on your research objectives/hypotheses.
I want you to choose a topic that interests you. When considering your topic, make sure it meets the following requirements:
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it falls within what is broadly defined as Library and Information Science. |
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the topic can be studied using empirical techniques |
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it is feasible to complete the study within the time period of the course |
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it meets the ethics guidelines of the University |
Below are some possible topics for the research report. They have been developed so that you can use other students, work acquaintances, family and friends. However, you should not use students currently taking LIS 570.
The topics below are hypothetical, although in some cases based on some actual events or campaigns.
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You have been commissioned to develop a Recycling Information (any topic could be considered here.) Centre for the residents of a local government area in an inner-city location. You want to try to make the centre as useful as possible so you decide to study the information behaviors, needs etc of the residents. |
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You are the information officer for the School of Library and Information Science. You want to re-design the information brochures for the MLS program. You think that they need to be based on information that prospective students think is important. |
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You want to know if and how the format of the information brochures mentioned above influence perceptions of usefulness. |
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What are students' (or people in general) attitudes toward _______________? (Insert an information agency, a type of information professional, an information product, service, etc.) Caution: This would be interesting, but "attitudes" are more complex to measure than behaviours, opinions, etc. See me before you start this topic. |
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What are people's beliefs about the benefits and cost of using the (new management information system within the organisation, local community information centre, public library, etc.) How strong are these beliefs? |
Any type of information source, channel or institution can be inserted here, for example adolescents beliefs about obtaining information from family and friends etc.
Good luck and enjoy the project. Research is fun!