You will submit a PowerPoint file based on the template provided here.
Please fill in the PPT slides with the suggested information.
Please elaborate (explain the information) in the notes area on each slide. Consider the notes to be the area where you are drafting the language you will eventually use for your Final Research Paper.
Your Study Design will cover the following three subjects (as described in the Course Guidelines):
Theory and Expectations: This section is where you describe the logic behind your expectations. You should explain what you expect to observe and why you expect to observe that. Depending on the topic, you may need more space to explain the logical reasoning behind what leads you to expect the kinds of relationship(s) you expect (refer to Pollock’s approach in his section on Proposing Explanations in Chapter 3 in the textbook). State your hypothesis(es) using Pollock’s template as positive statements and then state the null hypothesis(es); explain the assumptions that underlie your hypothesis(es); present some logical reasoning about why you expect the hypothesis(es) to be true.
Operationalization and Measurement of Concepts: In this section you describe your major concepts (dependent and independent variables) and any controls and describe how you plan to operationalize them or measure them empirically. Since you will be relying upon a data set, you should explain which variables you will be using and how they operationally relate to your concept. You will also discuss whether your method of measuring them duplicates what someone else has done (and cite them if so).
Research Design: This section is where you need to describe how you will test the relationship that you proposed in your hypothesis. You should describe the data set you will use, how many cases are in your study, which statistical test you will run and why. Note that which test you will run depends on the level of measurement of your variables (i.e., nominal, ordinal or interval). Finish by explaining what it would mean for your theory and for the broader scholarship if your hypothesis was supported by the data.
The final Study Design will be 3-5 pages.