There will be numerous weekly assignments throughout the course; however, aside from participation, the final grade will only include three summative assignments.  The weekly assignments are formative in nature, designed to allow you to practice/develop the requisite skills before you are asked to use them in a formal assignment.  Accordingly, these formative exercises will be evaluated on participation rather than on content.

1.  Participation      
There will be weekly assignments associated with each chapter. Some of these assignments will be done individually while others will be completed collabouratively. Each assignment will be given equal weight.  In doing these assignments, you will be reading a significant number of educational research articles in this class, most of which will be selected by classmates. During these weekly assignments, you will write, analyze, reflect, and react to what people in the course post. I will expect you to apply the concepts we have been reading about in the textbook when you as you discuss your reactions to these.

2.  Critique of a Research Journal Article*
Select two different types of research articles (one quantitative and one qualitative) from journals that you find particularly compelling because of your research interest. Complete a detailed analysis of the article by considering the coherence of the study in terms of the research question, literature review, method, data collection, analysis, and findings. You’ll need to adopt a critical consumer stance as you examine these key components. You might also find the questions listed at the end of the McMillan text useful (pages 380–385).

3.  Research Design*
Based of your new-found expertise, can you design an ideal study?  Select an area of interest then develop a clear research question along with an appropriate research paradigm. Be sure to include comments on methodology, data collection, sampling, thoughts about data analysis, and how you will deal with the issues of validity and reliability.

4.  Summative Paper*
In lieu of a comprehensive final examination, I will ask you to critique a policy paper and to write an extended reflection that demonstrates your mastery of key concepts and issues in educational research.

* NOTE
All written assignments are to conform to Scholarly Writing expectations and APA (6^th Edition) requirements.