CS 610 - Research Methods - Summer 1997

Richard Halstead-Nussloch, Ph.D.

Class Notices | Objectives | Projects and Assignments | Lecture Notes | Documents/Handouts |
Class Schedule | Journal | Class Attendance | Graded Work | Policies | Feedback | Hyperlinks

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Benjamin Disraeli, as cited by Mark Twain ... on Lies and Statistics

"There are lies and there are damned lies...And then there are statistics."

Objectives

Upon successful completion of the course, each student will be able to:

• Define and discuss major categories, techniques, and methods of doing computer-science research.
• Plan and design the use of major empirical methods of computer-science research, specifically surveys, case studies, comparisons, testing, and simple experiments.
• Plan, design, and implement a significant research project in an area of computer science.
• Present and report effectively on research in an acceptable manner for the computer science profession.

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Projects and Assignments

• Two Research Articles Comparison Report, 5%
• Final Research Project Proposal, 10%
• Survey Report, 15%
• Primary (Empirical) Research Project Report, 20%
• Final Research Project Report, 30%
• Class Participation and Contribution, 20%, Ongoing

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Lecture Notes Available

• View the slides covering PowerPoint
• Week 2 Lecture Notes including Plagiarism, Citing Sources, Primary and Secondary Research, Measurement, Proposals, Reports, and Presentations.
• Week 3 Lecture Notes including Survey Studies, Questionnaire Construction, Survey Assignment and Empirical Research Assignment

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Useful Documents and Handouts

• Avoiding Plagiarism and Citing References
• Notes on Primary Versus Secondary Research
• Final Project Presentation Criteria
• Criteria for two article presentations
• Feedback form
• View the course syllabus from Spring 1997
• View the course syllabus from Winter 1997
• View the course syllabus from Fall 1996
• View the course syllabus from Summer 1996
• View the example 2 article comparison write-up
• A quick guide to presentations
• Search engine comparison table with hyperlinks
• Measurement
• Survey Questionnaire Construction
• Using Chi-square for Contingency Tables
• Sample Survey Report Outline
• Case Studies
• Comparison Studies
• Usability Testing in Computer Science
• Software Quality/Testing
• Developing Proposals
• Tips and Techniques for Performing and Presenting Research
• Ethics: Hints and Tips for Research and Testing

Keeping a journal is highly recommended for this course. Include in it descriptions of your readings, your reviews of your readings, tips and techniques for doing research, the results of your research, logs of, e.g., Internet activity, etc.

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Class Attendance

Class participation and contribution will account for a significant portion of your grade. Since one cannot contribute to and participate in the class without attending, attendance is recommended. Regardless of attendance, each student is responsible for keeping up with materials and information from each class period. This means it is up to the student to arrange with another class member, obtaining notes, handouts, etc., from any class meeting, or portion thereof, missed.

NOTE: All students are expected to attend the final presentation sessions in their entirety. Any un-excused absences during this period will result in the loss of a whole letter grade from your final course grade. If you're going to miss either of those classes, let me know ahead of time!!!

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Graded work

Three homework papers and a final project (requiring submission of both a proposal and a project report) are required for the course. Participation in and contribution to class discussion is required. Thus, in addition to participating and contributing in the class, you will be required to hand-in five papers:

• 2 Research Articles Comparison Report - 5%
• Final Research Project Proposal - 10%
• Survey Report - 15%
• Case, Comparison, Software Quality Test or Usability-Test Study Report (Must involve primary research) - 20%
• Final Research Project Report - 30%
• Class Participation and Contribution - Ongoing - 20%
  

Detailed write-ups describe the assignments.

Note: All written work must be typed, preferable using a wordprocessor and spell-checker. Deductions will be taken for persistent misspellings, etc.

Note: A 2nd homework assignment (Survey Report) receiving a grade of B+ or lower may be re-written once, for potential grade improvement. Normally, the highest grade achievable on a re-write is an A-. Note further that the 2nd homework assignment is the only opportunity for re-write to improve one's grade.

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Policies

1. No late submissions for full grade credit except for documented emergencies.
2. All work assigned to be turned in is due at the beginning of the class.
3. Assignments turned in late will be accepted, but at a grade discount. Multiple late assignments will result in additional discount applied to your final course grade.
4. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated.

• ACM Home Page
• IEEE Home Page
• Galileo Home Page
• The largest freely accessible literature database in computer science
• Vanderbilt Professor Thomas P. Novak's Written Report Guidelines
• Vanderbilt Professor Thomas P. Novak's Draft Questionnaire Assignment
• Professor John McKendrick's Paper on Epistemology and Research
• Professors Chung Ting-yiu and Kitty Mak's Report on a Traffic Congestion Survey
• Professor Patricia Bellas' Mini-Course Outline on Questionnaire Construction
• Missouri Professor Michael K. Swan's Report on a Distance Learning Survey