IS4800 – Empirical Research Methods in Information Science

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Schedule

Date	Topics & Readings	Assignments
Lectures		Due	Start
1/11	Introduction.		I1
1/14	The Scientific Method (B&A Ch 1). Doing background research (B&A Ch 3).	I1	I2
1/18	Human subjects research (B&A Ch 6 & 7).	I2	I3
1/21	Ethnography (Fetterman, Kindberg, Swan).	I3	I4
1/25	Research models (B&A Ch 4).		I5
1/28	Objective measures (B&A Ch 5). Descriptive statistics (B&A Ch 13 to 418, Skim Aron Ch 1-2, Aron Ch 3). SPSS Tutorial: Introduction & Using the Data Editor	I4,I5	I6
2/1	Information system measures (Nielsen Ch 6, Sensing Techniques for Mobile Interaction).	I6	I7
2/4	Behavioral measures & Qualitative methods (B&A Ch 8).		I8
2/8	Survey measures (B&A Ch 9)	I7	I9
2/11	Hypothesis testing. Chi-square tests (Aron Ch 13).	I8
2/15	Correlational designs (B&A Ch 13 from 418, Aron Ch 11).	I9	I10
2/18	The experimental method I – Between subject designs (B&A Ch 10 to 303, Aron Ch 3 & Ch 4).
2/22	The experimental method II – the t Test for independent means (B&A Ch 14 to 442, Aron Ch 5, Ch 7 to 235 & Ch 8).	I10	I11
2/25	MIDTERM EXAM [Study guide]
	SPRING BREAK
3/8	Power & Effect Size (Aron Ch 6).	I11	T1
3/11	Identifying research questions (B&A Ch 2). Reporting results (B&A Ch 16).
3/15	Data preparation (Aron Ch 14).
3/18	Study presentations I.	T1	T2
3/22	Within-subjects designs (B&A Ch 10 303-317). The t Test for dependent means (Aron Ch 7 from 236). Example (Rigby)
3/25	Multi-factor between-subjects designs & ANOVA (B&A Ch 10 from 317, B&A Ch 14 442-453, Aron Ch 9, [opt Ch 10]). Example (Jonsson)
3/29	Advanced study designs (B&A Ch 11-12).
4/1	Study presentations II.	T2	T3
4/5	Regression (Aron Ch 12; Gilbert). Factor Analysis (review B&A Ch 9; Buys & Brown)
4/8	Examples from MIS [MIS1][MIS2][MIS3][MIS4]
4/12	Review for final.
4/15	Statistical graphics (guest: Dan Schulman)
4/19	Study presentations III.	T3
4/26	FINAL EXAM 8am Ryder 202 [Study guide]