Proposal v1

The proposal is your road map and key to a successful project. I will give you feedback that will help you fine-tune your project into something that is doable and that will yield good results. It is perfectly acceptable to replicate or modify a study from a journal article as long as you cite it and collect original data.Your proposal consists of 4 elements.

1.  Your general topic and at least one research question AND one hypothesis: the general topic is broadly what area you are interested in (eg. use of technology in the classroom). Your research question is the question you wish to answer with your research (eg. How do students use laptops or tablets to enhance their in class learning?). The hypothesis is the educated prediction you make about your findings (eg. Students primarily use laptops or tablets for outside the physical classroom educational tasks.) It is critical that you choose a question that can reasonably be answered with the data you can collect in the time you have. 
2. Data collection plan: for this project you are using surveys, interviews, and focus groups. For each, explain how you plan to use it, when, and the criteria for selecting participants and how many. Remember, each method must meet the minimum number of participants required. One method must be conducted online. See the Research Method Requirements page for details.
3. Submit 2 scholarly sources with annotated bibliographies (AB): Use full APA citations and each AB must be between 150-175 words. These are sources that would give you the background of either the focus of your study (eg. technology use in the classroom or in general) or the methods you might use (eg. ethnographic observation).  Use academic journal articles only. Books or edited volumes may only be used with PRIOR  instructor permission (physical copies or complete pdfs required). You may use other sources as well, but they do not count toward your required references. See the APA, Scholarly Sources, and Annotated Bibliography Workshop and the libraries How to Find Peer Reviewed Articles page Links to an external site. for details. Link Links to an external site.
   
4. Research plan and schedule for completion: how you plan to execute each phase of the project and the exact dates you plan to complete each phase. Please refer to the course schedule when planning your project and remember, you should not collect any data prior to completing your Literature review and Research Design.

Common Errors in Proposal Submissions

Here are some common errors to avoid in your proposal.

• Not taking the assignment seriously and turning in crappy work that does not follow the directions.
• Not using the form provided.
• Asking questions you cannot answer with the data you can collect in the time you have. For example, "How do students use laptops or tablets" WAY too broad. Better to ask "How do students use laptops or tablets to enhance their in class learning?"
• Asking non-communication based questions. For example, 'How do student choose their courses?" This is a communication and new media focused course and you need to select research that deals with human communication issues around technology.
• Not selecting enough research methods to use. You need a minimum of 3 research methods. Please note that collecting literature is NOT a research method.
• Trying to do too much. Research is always constrained by time and resources. Interviewing 10 people, surveying 200 people, and conducting 6 focus groups is probably not a reasonable amount of work for a single project (unless you are working in a 3 person team).
• Time line/schedule is not detailed enough or does not provide enough time to accomplish tasks. Schedules should be date specific with deadlines. Interviewing, coding data, and analyzing data takes a great deal of time.