Qualitative Research Methods
Syllabus Fall 2006

Course Objectives & Goals

1. Understand steps involved in planning and designing naturalistic/qualitative research and be able to conduct your own (small) qualitative research projects in the real world and online as demonstrated by the quality of their assigned research projects
2. as demonstrated by the quality of their assigned research projects
3. Know and be able to use qualitative research techniques, including observation, interviewing, document analysis in the real world and online as demonstrated by in class assignments and qulaity of data collected for assigned research projects
4. Be able to analyze qualitative data by hand as demonstrated by results in assigned research projects
5. Be able to discuss ethical implications of qualitative research in the real world and online as demonstrated by inclass discussion, in world exercises and behavior during data collection for their own assigned research projects
6. Be able to find and understand academic journal articles that use qualitative methods to collect and analyze data as demonstrated by in class activities and quality of the literature review in their assigned research projects
7. Improve academic writing fluency and style as demonstrated by improvements in writing over the course of the semester

Grades

	95-100 A	90-94 A-
87-89 B+	83-86 B	80-82 B-
77-79 C+	73-76 C	70-72 C-
67-69 D+	63-66 D	60-62 D-
	0-59 F

Textbook & Readings

• online articles and news stories linked in the syllabus
• reader that you will buy from me the first week of class

Here's the weekly schedule for the semester. Sometimes we will make changes - I might find a cool new article or we might get caught up in an inclass discussion or activity. So check back here frequently.

Date	Topic	Readings & Assignments
Week 1	Introductions, Accounts, Academic articles	W: introductions sign up for blogger.com account sign up for SecondLife Account look at my list of game related links that we will use in class F: before class - play: Samarost - it has interesting music play Opniyama read How to read a journal article read Computer Supported Cooperative Play, Third Places and Online Videogames by Wadley, Gibbs, Hew, and Graham - a pdf file - post answers before class on Friday to the following questions on your personal blog: what were they trying to do/what question were they trying to answer and how did they go about it? (notice I'm not asking you to comment on whether you liked the article or not - this isn't evaluative, it's practice at reading academic articles and picking out main points) we'll look at the IC library website to see how to find academic articles in class watch training videos from the Help menu inside Communication and mass media complete database play this and some others
Week 2	What is qualitative research, How do we know things, What is a game, experience a lot of what might or might not be games	W: before coming to class play: Endora's dream play: The Goat in the gray fedora - has audio that's important to game read Qualitative Research - Airy Fairy or Fundamental - from The Qualitative Report (an online journal) read What is Qualitative Research from the Qualitative Research Consultants Association read Papers that go beyond numbers - good questions you can use to help understand academic articles read Introduction - stop at chapter two in class play mini-zork F: before coming to class play:PASH - has interesting audio play:Mr. Picassohead before class - read read Defining Games by Zimmerman and Salen (reader) before class read blog entry labeled Death to videogames read A Short and Simple Definition of What a Videogame Is by Nicolas Esposito Post answers to these questions to your blog before class for discussion: of all the websites i had you go to this week, which do you think were games and why? Which were not games and why? How do you know? Now post your definition of videogame and say specifically how it is similar or different from definitions given in the articles we read this week. You'll use these ideas during our in class discussion.
Week 3	observation, data analysis, writing up results	M: read The Promise of Participant Observation (Reader) read about participant and direct observation on this page discuss what is observation, in class practice or here to practice or even here W: before class - read Declaring the Rights of Players by Raph Koster - be ready to discuss how does he define game? and do his rights affect your understanding of what a game is? read Social Interaction in There try this in class watch this video in class F: read One of Us article about participant observation in an online world read (something about writing up data) DO THIS ASSIGNMENT BEFORE CLASS: Visit a student cafeteria or the library, by yourself. Make sure the place is not empty and there are people. Sit for about an hour, pretend you are doing the same things that others in the locale are doing. Make yourself comfortable. Do not attract attention. Write your observations about what you see and not what you hear. It is advisable to do this assignment where you do not follow the conversation and are able to observe things from a distance. The idea of the assignment is to be able to use your "eyes," or the sense of sight to the maximum extent possible. Post a description of what you saw to your blog before you come to class on Friday (which means of course that you have to do the observation before class too). Make a note of the time and date, the actual location where you made your observations. Include excerpts from your personal notes, and complete field notes.Personal notes should contain your personal feelings/impressions.Write in as much detail as possible. Even if things do not seem to have any special significance, write about them. Don't make any prejudjment as to what is important and what is not. Describe the people in as detailed a fashion as possible, what they were doing, how did they present themselves, were they happy, sad or just plain bored etc., Write about ordinary things, the routine matters that you notice. Were there any rituals that you noticed. What special things did you notice that are worth reporting?
Week 4	How we know things & more on definitions	M: we'll play secondlife in class before class read this academic journal article: Computer-mediated communication as a virtual third place: building Oldenburg's great good places on the world wide web by Charles Soukup from New Media & Society, 8(3), p. 421-440, June 2006. Get it from the library's webpage, the Communication Studies: sage full-text collection database - be ready to discuss how they defined their main concepts, a videogame might be such a third place read Listening to the Voices in an Online Class by Scott Campbell in Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, volume IV, 2003, p. 9-15 - get it from the library website - the Communication and Mass Media Complete database W: read A touch of danger by Hansen and Leaving my father's house by Kumar (reader) - be ready to discuss the researcher as participant in these articles F: read Players who suit MUDs and be ready to discuss the author's definition of a game and how he classifies players Watch this video from the founder of Linden Labs and post on your blog what you found most important about SecondLife from this video and whether in your opinion it is a game or not and why
Week 5	Introduction to qualitative content/document analysis	M: read Media Content Analysis - PDF file to download W: take another look at the video by the Linden Labs founder and be ready to discuss how we could content analyze speeches and videos, what kinds/categories of content are there in a speech in class do content analysis of Photos - each person take a page, develop categories that could apply to all the photos (not just your page) F: Fashion show
Week 6	SecondLife Week	M: read Presentation of Self on the Web by Denise Bortree in Education, Communication and Information, March 2005, 5(1), p. 25-39 - be ready to discuss what they learned from the analysis of the blog entries (what they call the ethnographic study) and what they meant by mean by snowball sampling read What went wrong with The Sims Online (reader) W: read Ethics in SecondLife read Community Standards for SecondLife read Intro: 36 Ways to Learn a Video Game (reader) we'll look at things on the web about secondlife - start to think about your content analysis paper we'll start discussion of our second big topic - how do you learn something as big as SecondLife F: we'l play secondlife in class - gather more data
Week 7	Ethnography - Interviews, Observation	M: read 2 ethnography articles (reader) >Listen to a podcast episode with an interview W: F:
Week 8	Ethnography continued	M: Kim gone to conference cool article on SL from the NYT if ya like Ben Folds, check out this page to sign up for a cd release party in world read Conducting an In-Depth Interview post your observations about interviewing from the article and how you think it might work in SL do an educational event in Second Life - the intro class for new users, an intro class put on by Teasers, go to a public talk/discussion/presenattion. You find them in the event list - pick educational as the category and then summarize the class on your blog (with pictures) and send me the link in an email W: Kim gone to conference read You can see anything on the internet, you can do anything on the internet!: young Canadians talk about the internet by Leslie Shade, Nikki Porter and Wendy Sanchez in Canadian Journal of Communication volume 30, 2005, p. 503-526 - send me an email discussing how they conducted the interviews and how they used quotes from the people interviewed go to a welcome area in the game and just hang out, listen to conversations, start talking to people, blog about your experience and email me with a link to the post F: read Collecting data by in-depth interviewing - has a sample interview transcript Discuss interviewing (last method of data collecting)
Week 9	Interviews	M: read Telling and Doing: Why doesn't Lara Croft obey Professor Von Croy? (reader) W: Interview people in person on campus F: read this blog post about SecondLife - do you think it's an accurate description? be ready to discuss in class
Week 10	??	M: read Videogame players (ch4 ) by Newmann (reader) continue discussion of ethics and start talking about interviewing W: take home midterm due at beginning of class - printed, stapled work day for content analysis paper F: guest speaker
Week 11	??	M: Content Analysis Paper due W: read Presentation of self on the web by Bortree (reader)
Week 12	interviewing in SecondLife	M: read Realtime Interviewing using the World Wide Web by Chen and Hinton, in Sociological Research Online, 4(3), 1999 F: go thru the first 5 sections of this online course on interviews read Social gaming and the culture of videogames (ch9) by Newmann (reader) - can summarize for extra credit in case you missed a week
Week 13	interviewing in SecondLife	M: read Why People Play Games (reader) play the game - interview people W: if game up, play the game, otherwise do preliminary data anlaysis F: play the game, interview more people
Week 14		M; read read Cultural Framing of Computer/Video Games W: F:
Week 15		Ethnography Paper due on Friday of this week (last class)
Week 16	Final Exam Week	Presentations of ethnography paper and the data collected in SecondLife

SecondLife Blogs

Attendance and Class Participation

Here is the college attendance policy. I expect you to follow it. I will take attendance each class either by calling names or passing around a sign up sheet. If you are not there when your name is called, you will be marked absent.

Ithaca College Policy
Students at Ithaca College are expected to attend all classes, and they are responsible for work missed during any absence from class. At the beginning of each semester, instructors must provide students in their courses with written guidelines regarding possible grading penalties for failure to attend class. Students should notify their instructors as soon as possible of any anticipated absences. Written documentation that indicates the reason for being absent may be required. These guidelines may vary from course to course, but are subject to the following restrictions:

1. In accordance with New York State law, students who miss class due to their religious beliefs shall be excused from class or examinations on that day. Such students must notify their course instructors at least one week before any anticipated absence so that proper arrangements may be made to make up any missed work or examination without penalty. Faculty will not schedule examinations or quizzes on designated religious holidays on the calendar day following the designated holidays. Designed holidays are Rosh Hashanah (2 days), Yom Kippur, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.

2. Any student who misses class due to a verifiable emergency - such as an illness requiring attention by the health center, or hospitalization, death, or serious illness of a family member, or required appearance in a court of la

W: shall be excused. Students may notify the Office of Student Affairs about any emergency, and that office will notify the appropriate faculty member

A student may be excused for participation in college-authorized co-curricular and extracurricular activities such as athletic events, musical and theatrical performance, and professional conferences if, in the instructor's judgment, this does not impair the specific student's or the other students' ability to succeed in the course.

The course instructor has the right to determine if the number of absences has been excessive in view of the nature of the class that was missed and the stated attendance policy. Depending on the individual situation, this can result in the student being removed from or failing the course.

Regarding Academic Dishonesty

Academic dishonesty includes cheating, plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration, falsifying academic records, and any act designed to avoid participating honestly in the learning process. Scholastic dishonesty also includes, but is not limited to, providing false or misleading information to receive a postponement or an extension on a test, quiz, or other assignment, and submission of essentially the same written assignment for two courses without the prior permission of the instructor. Plagiarism can involve not only written work but computer programs, photographs, artwork, films, videos, and audio recordings. Scholastic dishonesty damages both the student's learning experience and readiness for the future demands of a career. Students who violate college's rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the college. If you are at all unsure about what constitutes plagiarism or academic dishonesty, or how to give credit see me and consult the Student Handbook (see "plagiarism" in the index)

In a collaborative project, all students in a group may be held responsible for academic misconduct if they engage in plagiarism or are aware of plagiarism by others in their group and fail to report it. Students who participate in a collaborative project in which plagiarism has occurred will not be held accountable if they were not knowledgeable of the plagiarism.

Students with Special Needs
In compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, reasonable accommodation will be provided to students with documented disabilities on a case by case basis. Students must register with the Office of Academic Support Services and provide appropriate documentation to the college before any academic adjustment will be provided.See the current College Catalog under "Disabilities".

This page last updated 24 August 2006 by Kim Gregson

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