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Qualitative Research Methods
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Syllabus Spring 2006

Requirements for all asignments: All assignments regardless of length must be typed. Use Times Roman 12 point font. Left justify only. Double space. 1 inch margins all around. Staple in upper left corner. Cover page for group projects with your title and names of everyone involved. For individual papers - just put your name and the date and the top of the first page of printing. I can not accept any late papers. If you have to miss class the day something is due - email it to me before class and then you have to bring me a paper copy sometime that day. I will not grade the email copy - it is just to show me that you are finished. You need to make sure that you or someone brings me a paper copy that day (before I leave preferably or before the TVR secretary leaves so she can put a date and time on it). Going to court or the health center - not an excuse - you can still get to the email.
  • Observation Paper: This paper should be based strictly on your individual observations in Second Life. You don't have to talk to people or interact with them. Just watch, listen, and make notes. The project has several goals. One is to give you another chance to practice the qualitative research process from start to finish.

    You want to try to answer the question of what is the relationship between the choices someone makes for their avatar and their behavior in the game? Or you might want to look at how people behave at events like dances or in the casinos. Another observation option is to compare several neighborhoods in the game and try to draw some conclusions about why people build in the game. A fourth observation possibility is to watch people in the welcome area over time to try to define what purpose that area serves in the game. Remember - observe, don't interfere.

    Give examples. Put in screen shots to illustrate your observations - secondlife has a built in camera function you can use or feel free to use whatever screen capture program you like. If you want to record movies of your time - that would be good data. You can give me a CD with the movies, labeled on the disk and in the paper so I can find them. The paper should be 5 to 7 pages long. It is due on March 3 (Friday before Spring Break)

  • Content Analysis Paper: Each group of 2 or 3 people will pick one of the types of material to analyze. The goal is to begin to develop an understanding of the SecondLife culture and the people in that culture. One goal is to give you more practice reading academic research. For each content listed below I have indicated the minimum number of items - this will get you only a B as the highest grade. You must have at least 10% more to be eligible for an A. (Having the number of data items does not guarantee the grade.)
    • forum posts -pick one of these discussin forums - land and the economy, movies and machinima (and animation), building, events and/or meetups, SL Games, or General. You need to read about 100 posts for the paper to get the possibility of a B, 125 or more for the possibility of an A. Pick active threads in your forum. There have been some interesting discussions in General about griefing, about the impeach Bush signs, about whether Linden Labs plays favorites.
    • weblogs made about SecondLife - whole blog is focused on some aspect of the game - need 3 per member in the group for the possibility of a B and 5 per member for the possibility of an A. Pick well-developed blogs, one with lots of posts and a nice set of links. If you pick blogs with just a couple of posts, you will not get a good grade.
    • movies made in SecondLife - need to have at least 10 different movies for your group for the possibility of a B and 12 for the possibiity of an A
      places to look for moviesinclude:
    This report should be 7 to 10 pages long. I want you to focus on the methods part of the paper. Describe the materials you used. Tell how you analyzed the data - what your group did, how you found patterns, how many times did you go through the data. Tell us what difficulties you ran into. Be sure to tell us what you expected to find but didn't. Tell us what you learned about the game culture from these materials. Tell us a story using the information in our materials as your data. Try to make your writing exciting, tightly focused, and active. The paper is due on April 7 (first friday in April)

  • Final Ethnography Paper: For this group paper you all should be an active participant in secondlife. You need to experience the game from the inside, as opposed to the observation paper where you were an outsider. Go to events. Go to clubs and stores. Talk to people. You have to interview at least 10 people each. Interview doesn't mean just ask them a couple of questions; do indepth interviews with a variety of people. Pick one to three topics for your project - things like why do you come to SecondLife, how is your avatar related to the real world you, etc.Draw on what you observed in your 1st and 2nd papers. Ask people about your observations to double check your interpretations for instance. This paper should be 15 to 20 pages. Be sure to include a bibliography. This paper you will present during our scheduled final exam time in Mayand turn in that day too.