LIS621 Course Description

This course addresses the theories, principles, and practices of social science research. It examines reflective inquiry (including the development of the problem statement, literature review, theoretical framework, logical structure, research objectives, and questions/hypotheses) and research design, data collection methods, and data analysis. The course also covers generalizability, reliability and validity, and the report and presentation of research results. Methods in quantitative and qualitative data analysis are introduced. Students are able to develop their own research proposals and select appropriate methods based on specific research questions.

The course builds on themes and research concepts introduced in LIS 620: History, Concepts and Research Opportunities. The course requirement might include assignments, quizzes, research projects, and presentation of the research results.

I. Course Objectives:

As a required course for PhD students, the course is aimed to help students to achieve following specific goals:

• To understand the nature of scientific methods and reflective inquiry, the conduct and process of research, the design frameworks, and methods of collecting, managing, and analyzing data;
• To master key research methods and design traditions in the LIS field and beyond, especially to familiar with the quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods and their corresponding research designs;
• To develop viable research plan, acquire skills in developing problem statement and research questions, and designing appropriate empirical methods and approaches for the research questions;
• To obtain practical experience in applying for IRB approval for research protocols involving human participants, writing of research proposal, and conducting data collection;
• To develop critical reading/thinking skills, obtain an understanding of the writing requirements of scholarly communication, and build a sense of scholarship and academic life in the information field.

II. SLIS Student Learning Outcomes:

A. PhD Program Student Learning Outcomes Relevant to LIS621:

A graduate of the Simmons SLIS PhD program:
• Understands scholarship in the field of library, archival, and information science;
• Articulates prominent theories in the field of library, archival, and information science;
• Identifies researchable problems and applies relevant research studies, research designs, and methodologies to tasks requiring problem-solving and critical thinking;
• Analyzes and presents information, including research proposals and findings, clearly and accurately in a variety of formats;
• Conducts qualitative, quantitative or mixed method empirical research studies by carrying out reflective inquiry, performing data collection and analysis, and composing research reports.

B. Master’s Program Learning Outcomes Relevant to LIS621:

• Critically analyze and apply research.
• Evaluate and create information services and/or systems to reflect and respond to the needs of diverse communities and stakeholders.
• Be guided by professional ethics and values.

III. Course Design Specifics:

Seminar class sessions will feature lectures, guest presentations, lead discussion of readings, and milestone project segment reports. The class members will be involved in submitting a wiki reading journal and posting questions about the readings. More importantly, students will participate in investigating a research topic of interest by going through the process of outlining a research scenario, developing a problem statement and research questions, designing appropriate methods of inquiry, and devising instruments for data collection. Individual students will conduct small-scale data collections suitable for a pilot study and perform data analysis. The end product of the course is a report paper of the project carried out in the course of the semester.

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© Rong Tang 2018