Graduate Studies Reports Access
Graduate Course Proposal Form Submission Detail - COM6313
Tracking Number - 2020
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Current Status:
Approved, Permanent Archive - 2004-03-18
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Detail Information
- Date & Time Submitted: 2003-10-27
- Department: Communication
- College: AS
- Budget Account Number: 1217000
- Contact Person: Gil Rodman
- Phone: 9743025
- Email: grodman@chuma.cas.usf.edu
- Prefix: COM
- Number: 6313
- Full Title: Interpreting Communication Research
- Credit Hours: 3
- Section Type: D -
Discussion (Primarily)
- Is the course title variable?: N
- Is a permit required for registration?: N
- Are the credit hours variable?: N
- Is this course repeatable?:
- If repeatable, how many times?: 0
- Abbreviated Title (30 characters maximum): Interpreting Communication Res
- Course Online?: -
- Percentage Online:
- Grading Option:
R - Regular
- Prerequisites: Graduate Standing
- Corequisites: None
- Course Description: This course is designed to give students tools to help them interpret the mainstream research literature in communication and to judge research on a quality continuum. No assumptions are made about student understanding of quantitative research methods.
- Please briefly explain why it is necessary and/or desirable to add this course: This course is designed for graduate students in communication who want to be able to understand and consume the bulk of the mainstream, quantitative and qualitative research in our field and in the social sciences. This is the only class in our graduate
- What is the need or demand for this course? (Indicate if this course is part of a required sequence in the major.) What other programs would this course service? The need stems from two factors: 1) Many of our doctoral students return from the NCA and ICA conventions complaining that while they were very interested in the papers from a particular panel, they couldn’t understand the quantitative research methods and statistics. 2) As a faculty we thought enough of this issue to offer the class twice in the past 10 years and the first time it was team-taught with the current chair of the department and another senior faculty member.
- Has this course been offered as Selected Topics/Experimental Topics course? If yes, how many times? In the 10 years this course has been offered twice, both times to rave reviews and comments by students who appreciated finally having a quantitative toolkit with which to understand the bulk of articles that appear in our mainstream “A” journals.
- What qualifications for training and/or experience are necessary to teach this course? (List minimum qualifications for the instructor.) Ph.D. in Communication or closely related field.
- Objectives: This course is designed to provide students with tools to help them interpret the mainstream research literature in communication and the social sciences. Since there is no perfect research study, communication scholars must know how and where to judge research on a quality continuum. The course makes no assumptions about student understanding of quantitative research methods or statistical analysis.
- Learning Outcomes: By the end of the semester, students will be able to read, understand and critique the majority of quantitative studies in communication and related fields. A related goal is to expand students’ methodological repertoire so that they will be able to use the right methodological tool for the unique requirements of your research projects. In so doing it is hoped students will learn to avoid the “law of the hammer” in which one’s methodological penchant drive how a subject is examined rather that the unique requirements of a particular social phenomenon or research question.
- Major Topics: Epistemology, Theories & The Scientific Method, Variables, Relationships & Research Questions/Hypotheses, Psychological Measurement--Validity, Reliability and Scaling, Questionnaire Construction, Sampling--Who are You Researching & Research Designs, Correlation & Data Structure, Describing Data, Testing Data Relationships & Hypotheses--Parametric Tests, Testing Data Relationships & Hypotheses--Nonparametric Tests, and Qualitative Field & Observational Research.
- Textbooks: There are two texts for this course. The first is the latest and greatest graduate-level textbook on research methods in communication: Communication Research: Asking Questions, Finding Answers. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co. 2001 by Joann Keyton. A second text is Pettegrew’s Cure for Insomnia, a terse compilation of readings about communication science, methodology and some statistics. It also contains a small list of research articles that students will be responsible for reading, understanding and critiquing throughout the semester.
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- Student Expectations/Requirements and Grading Policy:
- Assignments, Exams and Tests:
- Attendance Policy:
- Policy on Make-up Work:
- Program This Course Supports:
- Course Concurrence Information:
- if you have questions about any of these fields, please contact chinescobb@grad.usf.edu or joe@grad.usf.edu.