M3 – Capstone Milestone
Capstone Milestone Radial StampPrimary Research Design
One requirement of this course is to conduct primary research related to your research question. For this week’s capstone milestone you are required to plan your research design for either a questionnaire or an interview you will conduct. Begin by asking yourself these questions:
•What am I trying to find out?
•How am I planning on finding it out?
•Who am I going to talk/observe/study?
•How am I going to gain access to these individuals?
•What do I expect to discover?
Select whether you will be conducting an interview or questionnaire and submit the requested material. Remember, you do not need to conduct the research yet, but you do need to demonstrate that you know the best way to obtain the information needed. You will determine your sample in the coming week and will need to administer the questionnaire and analyze the results for your capstone.
1. Interview
a. Interview guide: a brief statement of who you plan to interview, your goals for the interview, and how those goals relate to your research questions. If you conduct an interview, you must interview at least two people.
b. Interview questions: provide a list of the 15 questions you plan to ask in your interview and explain how each relates to your research goals.
2. Questionnaire
a. Research population: describe who they are and how many there are.
b. Sampling strategy: will you distribute the survey to your entire research population? If not, how will you determine who is in your sample (i.e., who is invited to complete the survey)?
c. Questionnaire of at least 25 questions (you must actually design the questionnaire).
d. A description of how each question relates to your research goals.
The purpose of this assignment is to help you evaluate an aspect of your research problem and demonstrate your clear understanding of surveying and/or interviewing techniques and analysis. Please keep the following questions in mind while writing your questions:
•What are the goals of this research design?
•What should be asked?
•How should each question be asked?
•In what sequence should the questions be arranged?
•What questionnaire layout will best search the research objectives?
•How should the questionnaire be pretested? Does the questionnaire need to be revised?
Assignment Mechanics
•There is no identified format for this assignment; your format will differ depending on a number of variables. It’s your option whether to use a pencil/paper survey or an online survey.
•Include your name and the date at the top of the page.
•Include your last name in the file name of the assignment.
M3 – Assignment: Annotated Bibliography
White paper that says “The Annotated Bibliography” on a black background
An annotation gives a list of sources on a selected topic and summarizes the contents of each source. Writing an annotated bibliography may first seem to be busywork, but it helps students to keep track and evaluate their sources.
Write an annotated bibliography for a minimum of 4 resources for your capstone project. Your bibliography should include the following information:
1.Defines the scope of the source, lists the significant topics and tells what the source is about.
2.Summarize the source.
3.Weigh the strengths and weaknesses of the source to gauge its relevance and usefulness
4.Write one or two sentences to summarize/describe the content and one or two sentences providing an evaluation.
Additional Resources
•APA Cleary Style Manual located in the Documents Library
•Annotated Bibliographies (Purdue OWL)
•Annotated Bibliography Sample
•
The Annotated Bibliography (linked here and located in the Documents Library)
Assessment Mechanics
•Use proper APA formatting
•Include your name and the date at the top of the page.
•Include your last name in the file name of the assignment.
