This page is frequently updated -
please Refresh or Reload your browser to make sure you have the latest
updates.
| Assignment |
Instructions |
| Final
Examination |
Friday, May 7, 9 a.m. This will be comprehensive and will include both multiple choice and computational questions. |
| "Quiz
Review" |
The
WEBCT quizzes from the early part of the semester will be open for the
two-day "reading period" May 4 and 5. Check the WEBCT Quiz page
for details. No password will be required. Your score
cannot go down by retaking a quiz, but there is no need to retake one
if you are satisfied with your score. This will NOT include the
Sampling or Research Design quizzes which must be completed on
time. The Review for Final and Percent Review are available right
up until the final. |
| "Percent Review" |
This
review quiz may be taken any time up until May 7, 7 a.m. To take
it, first open
the quiz here. Then calculate the answers. Then enter
the answers into WEBCT. |
| "Review
for Final" |
This
WEBCT Quiz reviews the semester. It will be
available from April 26 to May 7, 7 a.m. |
| "Research
Design" |
This
WEBCT Quiz covers the highlights of chapters 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11.
It will be available April 19 to May 3, 5 p.m.. |
| "Sampling" |
This
WEBCT Quiz will be open until 5 p.m. on April 19.
Most of the questions are based on Exercise 4 in the Workbook.
The Margin of Error questions require formulas which are in the class
notes. It also includes a mean score and a standard deviation
question. For information on how to compute these see Descriptive
Statistics. |
| Extra
Credit Projects |
For
Extra Credit, you may do an
individual research project for presentation to the class and/or at the
Undergraduate
Research Poster Session on April 30, 12:15 to 1:30. To
get extra-credit in this course, you must submit a Proposal
to the
WEBCT Assignment Dropbox by 5 p.m. April 22. After getting
approval from the instructor, if you wish to participate in the Poster
Session, you must officially submit your title on
the Department
Enrollment Form by April 23. A sample extra-credit
presentation, which can be used as a template, is at: Happy.ppt. |
| "Workbook
5" |
This
exercise covers Chapter 5 in the text and Exercises 5a and 5b in the
Workbook. Only selected items from the Workbook are included, so
you might want to look at the text before doing the workbook
questions. It will be available
until 5 p.m. on March 31. If you do not take it before it closes,
you will get a zero. Any technical problems with WEBCT should be
resolved with the instructor before that time. Bonus: this
one is worth 105 points (21 five point items). |
| "Excel
Regression" |
This
assignment is due in class on March 24, or any class prior to
that. It can also be submitted to WEBCT. If you submit to
WEBCT, submit the Excel File,
not the assignment file. The graph in this assignment must be one
that you create with Excel, not one copied from the BJS site. If
you do not complete this assignment by 10:10 a.m. on March 24, you will
get a zero. |
| "Microcase
Trends" |
This
assignment requires going to the computer lab to use the Microcase
Curriculum Plan 2003-2004 software. It may be submitted on paper
in class any day up until March 12, or submitted to WEBCT by 5
p.m. If you do not complete it by 5 p.m. March 12, you will get a
zero. |
| "Workbook
8" Quiz |
This
exercise covers Chapter 8 in the textbook and Exercise 8 in the
workbook. You should
read the chapter and do the
exercise on paper before taking the quiz. The quiz is in WEBCT
and may be taken as many times as you wish. It will be available
until 5 p.m. on March 12. If you do not take it before it closes,
you will get a zero. Any technical problems with WEBCT should be
resolved with the instructor before that time. |
| "Workbook
3" Quiz |
This exercise covers Chapter Three in the textbook and Exercise 3 in the workbook. You should read the chapter and do the exercise on paper before taking the quiz. The quiz is in WEBCT and may be taken as many times as you wish. It will be available until 5 p.m. on March 5. If you do not take it before it closes, you will get a zero. Any technical problems with WEBCT should be resolved with the instructor before that time. |
| FIRST
MEDTERM MONDAY FEB 23 |
Our
first midterm exam will be on Monday, Feb 23. It will include
both multiple choice and computational problems. Bring a
calculator and a pencil with an eraser. |
| Percents and
Expected Frequencies |
This
exercise will be completed in class on Friday, February 13. If
you miss class, you may complete it on your own and submit it to the
assignment dropbox by 5 p.m. February 18.. |
| "Workbook
2b" Quiz |
This
covers Exercise 2b in the Workbook, together with some percentage and
expected frequency questions. It closes on February 20 at 5 p.m. |
| "Research
on Shoplifting Attitudes" Lecture on February 6 and questionnaire |
This
assignment has two components: 1. Attend Gail Caputo's lecture on February 6 on her research on shoplifting and hand in a page of handwritten notes at the end of the hour. 2. Complete a copy of Professor Caputo's anonymous questionnaire (either in class on February 6 or later), unless you have already completed it in another class. |
| "Workbook 2a" Quiz |
This exercise covers Chapter Two in the Textbook and Exercise 2a in the Workbook. You should read the chapter and do the exercise on paper before taking the quiz. The quiz is in WEBCT and may be taken as many times as you wish up until 5 p.m. February 16. If you don't take it before it closes you will get a zero. |
| "Workbook
1" Quiz |
This
quiz has items from both Chapter One in the Textbook and the first
exercise in the Workbook. You should read the chapter and do the
exercise on paper before taking the quiz. The quiz is in WEBCT
and may be taken as many times as you wish up until 5 p.m. February
13. If you don't take it before it closes you will get a zero. |
| "Microcase
Intro" Quiz |
This
quiz is drawn from the Introductory Exercise in the Microcase
Workbook. You should do the exercise first on paper, then open
the Quiz and answer the 20 questions.. The Quiz is in WEBCT
and you'll get your grade right away. The quiz may be taken
as many times as you like up until 5 p.m. February 9, and your highest
score will count. If you don't take it before it closes you will
get a zero. |
| Human
Subjects Letter |
This
assignment is discussed under "January 26" below. You should
complete the online course by Thursday, February 5, because ORSP
updates its files on Friday. Your official letter is due February
9 and may be brought to class (on any class day up until February 9) or
submitted to WEBCT by 2 p.m. February 9. |
| Enrolling | Open the assignment file (click on the link at the left) and follow the instructions. This assignment is due in WEBCT by January 30, 5 p.m. |
Friday, May 7, 9 a.m.
Final Examination. This will be comprehensive
and will include both multiple choice and computational questions.
May 3: Last Day of Class. Review for Final.
April 30 Presentation of Extra Credit PowerPoints. Poster
Session at 12:15 in the Multi-Purpose room at the College
Center. All are invited to attend; those having
submitted a poster must attend to get extra credit.
April 28: Chapter 11: Content Analysis and Other
Unobtrusive Techniques
** 8 a.m. April 28: Help in BSB 117 for anyone working on
an extra credit project **
April 26: Chapter 10: Experimental Research
April 23: Chapter 9: Field Research
April 21: Chapter 7: Survey Research
April 19: Chapter 6: Basic Research Designs.
April 16: We will
discuss Extra Credit projects. Anyone wanting to do extra credit
should be sure to attend.
April 14: Bring your
Workbooks and calculators, we will work on the sampling items in the
workbook.
April 12: Lecture on
sampling, chapter 4 in the textbook.
April 9: Catch-up day in
BSB 117
April 7: Tests
returned. Review of Test.
April 5: Second Midterm
Exam.
April 2: Review
for Second Midterm. Chapters three, five and eight and material covered
in class including regression problems similar to those in the
in-class
exercise on regression
March 31: We will
discuss Path Analysis.
Further examples are in the notes.
March 29:
We will do an in-class
exercise on regression analysis with items similar to those that
will be on the second midterm. This exercise is not to be handed
in. If you miss class, you can print it from this WEB site and
complete it on your own.
March 26: Causal analysis with cross-tabulation,
causal modeling.
March 24: - BSB 117 computer lab assistance available 8
to 9 - Bring your workbooks, we will work on
causal analysis with cross-tabulation.
March 22: Introduction to Causal Analysis,
Chapter 5 in the
Textbook. We will view a PowerPoint presentation on The
Art and Science of Cause and Effect. The next Quiz will be
"Workbook 5a" doing causal analysis with cross-tabulation.
March 12: we will meet in the
BSB 108 computer lab for help with Micrcase Professional and
Excel.
This class is optional, attendance will not be taken. You should
be
able to complete the Excel Regression assignment during this class.
March 10: Meet in BSB 108 to work on Microcase Trends
assignment. Attendance optional.
March 8: More on trends and regression modelling,
including multiple regression. We will use Amar Patel's
Linear Regression Lesson as a reading assignment since this topic
is not covered fully
in our textbook. (Causal analysis using regression is discussed
on pages 97-106). We can also use the htwtdat.xls
data set and the htwtmicrocase.xls
data set (which is actually not an xls file, you need to download it
then change the file extension to mc4). The propertycrimes.xls
data set corresponds to the assignment due March 24.
March 5: Linear regression as a tool for data
analysis. Online regression
applet. We will learn to do regression in Microsoft
Excel.
This is on the "tools"/"data analysis" menu. You may need to
install
this from the CD-rom if you have Excel on your home computer.
March 3: Time series analysis. If we can get it to work in
the classroom, we will use the Microcase Professional Historical Trends
module. You can find this on the Microcase in the computer
labs. We will also explore the use of Microsoft
Excel for graphing trends and computing regression equations.
We will begin discussing the Excel
Graphics Assignment
March 1: Chapter Eight on Comparative Research Using Aggregate
Units.
February 27: Chapter Three on Measurement: Reliability and
Validity.
February 25: Chapter Three on Measurement: Levels of
Measurement
February 23: First Midterm Exam:
Bring a pencil with an eraser and a hand calculator.
February 20: Review for Midterm conducted by Hiten Patel.
Essential for anyone having trouble with the statistical items.
February 18: Overview of concepts to be covered in multiple
choice items on the midterm. Practice Quiz One, is available in
WEBCT. This is just for reviewing, it is not required and does
not count towards your grade.
February 16: Descriptive Statistics for Continuous
Variables. Measures of central tendency and dispersion.
Required Reading: Descriptive
Statistics. In-class
exercise (not to be handed in).
February 11 and 13: Percentages, expected frequencies and
chi-square. In-class
exercise on Feb. 13, to be submitted to WEBCT only if you do not
turn it in after class on Feb. 13.
February 9: The Research Process Using Survey Data,
Exercise 2b.
February 6: "What's in the Bag?" A guest lecture by Gail
Caputo describing the steps in her research project on shoplifting
attitudes.
Feb 4: Chapter Two in the Textbook on Steps in the Social
Scientific Process.
February 2: Scatterplots and the Research Process Using Aggregate
Data (exercise 2a). The regression line. Bring your
workbooks
January 30 The nature and uses of science and social
science.
Discussion of Concepts and Theories, Chapter One in the textbook
(Contemporary
Social Research Methods).
January 28. We will continue discussing ethics, especially
in behavioral research. See the Class
Notes page for some of the material to be covered in class.
We will also look a bit at Chapter One in the Text and Workbook.
January 26. Ethics of Research with Human Subjects. In our
text, this is covered in
the separate chapters on each kind of research design, e.g., on page
157
for survey research, 184 for comparative research, 206 for field
research
and 229 for experimental research. Most sociological research
raises only
limited
ethical questions, but Rutgers
regulations require that all researchers, including students, be
given
training and certification for research with human subjects. This
is done through an online WEBCT course. You are assigned to
complete
this course by Thursday, February 5, 2004 and to bring your
certification letter to class or submit it to WEBCT no later than
February 9, 2004. Instructions for obtaining this letter
are online.
The course is on WEBCT: Open your WEBCT, go to "Add a Course, "go
to "special courses" and add the course called Human Subjects
Certification
Program. Complete the online quiz, pass it, and then obtain your
letter. You must obtain a score of 80 or higher to pass the test (don't
worry about getting more than 80, I will give you a "100" on the
assignment
as long as you pass it). Once you have achieved a passing score,
you must wait until the next friday for the data base to be
updated. Then
go
to the following Internet address:http://orsp.rutgers.edu/webct/and
follow the instructions on the screen to get your letter. The
letter
will open on the screen in your computer. Print the letter out
and bring it to class or save it as a file and submit it to
WEBCT.
January 23 Introduction to the Microcase
Software Discussion of the IntroMicrocase Quiz
Assignment.
Quiz closes 5 p.m. February 9. You can take it three times and
the
highest grade counts, so take it as early as possible.
January 21. First day of class. Discussion of the Course
Syllabus and the use of the Microcase
software. Signing up for WEBCT
and other departmental
systems. This is done by opening the Enrolling
assignment and following the instructions. The Enrolling
assignment is due in WEBCT by January 30.