Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/Introduction to Qualitative Research in the Social Sciences (Heather Adams)

Course information

 * University: Ball State University
 * Course title: Introduction to Qualitative Research in the Social Sciences
 * Professor name: Heather Adams
 * Professor's Wikipedia username: Heather Adams
 * Course start date: 08/21/2012
 * Assignment due date: 10/08/2012 further revision due12/06/2012

Course description
This course provides an overview of key areas of qualitative research as it is commonly employed in the social sciences. The course format will interweave professor led discussions, student construction of Wikipedia pages relating to the topic via the American Psychological Society portal and generating experiential knowledge through a class research project. Instructor led topics will include an introduction to qualitative research, ethics, epistemologies, methodological rigor, participant action research, representation of findings, and publishing research. Student Wikipedia pages will be constructed in groups, with each group covering one of the following five topics: interviewing, artifact collection, participant observation, thematic analysis and narrative analysis. These pages will be constructed through the Wikipedia Education Program, with the assistance of a Wikipedia campus ambassador and online ambassadors. The second half of the course will focus on experiential learning, as students apply what they have learned textually to designing and producing a class research project. Our project location this year is the campus multicultural center. Graduate Students will also complete a qualitative research proposal or preliminary report, depending on where they are with their project. Students will then make further Wikipedia revisions regarding coverage and topic area, as informed by their experiences and further critiques from the online community. At the conclusion of the course students should be familiar with key methods, common terminology and key areas of methodological discussion.

Wikipedia assignment
Each pair of students will make a significant contribution to Wikipedia content in one of the four following areas: interviewing, participant observation, thematic analysis, and narrative analysis. Working from resources provided by the instructor and additional resources students locate on their own, each pair will specify an area of focus in their topic by 09/17/2012, presenting a plan for either improving the quality of a current article or starting a new article.

Along with two sessions with their campus ambassador, students will have four in-class working sessions for this project. Their final Wikipedia article will be due on 10/08/2012. Students will return to their Wikipedia article at the end of the semester, after completing a class research project, to make further revisions informed by their experiences. These revisions will NOT be reflections of their personal experiences, but rather experiential-based reassessments of what information should be included or emphasized. Students will also finish their course required response to online critiques, but will be encouraged to continue this process on their own.

We are in the process of co-creating the rubrics for the Wikipedia article. We have currently agreed on the four parts below, with their current point assignments.
 * Content of the final Wikipedia article (40pts) – assigned by instructor
 * Assessment of contributions by partner (30pts) – assigned by pair-mate
 * Peer assessment of quality of feedback (15pts) – average of scores assigned by all classmates except pair-mate
 * Instructor assessment of quality of feedback (15pts) – assigned by instructor

We are in the process of co-creating the specific criteria for these rubrics, but have agreed the Content rubric will encompass the Wikipedia criteria for “good” and the Feedback rubric will encompass Wikipedia’s etiquette criteria.

Student usernames
Student usernames should follow the ExampleUser format below.

Student resources
For on-wiki help, please refer to this student orientation and this brief resource page.

Ambassadors

 * Campus Ambassador: Brenda Burk
 * Online Ambassador:

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