ALBANY STATE
UNIVERSITY
ALBANY, GEORGIA
MASTER OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM
PADM 5905: COURSE
SYLLABUS
Course Title: MPA Capstone
Research
Course Number: PADM 5905.01
Semester Offered: Spring Semester, 2010
Class Meetings: Monday evenings, 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.
Location: Simmons
Hall, Room 212 or as announced
Instructor: Dr. Bruce
Neubauer, Simmons, Room 307
229-430-4872,
bruce.neubauer@asurams.edu
Office Hours: Daily 9:30 to 11:30
a.m. and by appointment.
Course
Home Page: http://www.robertcat.net/spring2009/padm5905/index.html
Textbooks:
Research Methods for Public Administration by Elizabeth O'Sullivan, Gary R. Rassel and Maureen Berner.
An Intermediate Guide to SPSS Programming: Using Syntax for
Data Management (2004) by Sarah Boslaugh, ISBN:
0761931856.
How to Write a Better Thesis (2003) by David Evans and Paul Gruba, ISBN 0522850308.
APA the Easy Way (2007) by Peggy Houghton and timothy Houghton,
ISBN 0923568557
______________
COURSE DESCRIPTION (Catalog
Description)
PADM 5905
Capstone Research Project
The evaluation of the research paper/project consists of three components: (1) a grade for the written portion (2) a grade for the 15-20 minute oral presentation for the capstone paper and (3) oral examination which will cover the MPA core courses related to the
research subject matter. Students will be evaluated by a three-member committee. The individual selected as the FIRST READER will be the faculty member who has a background in the subject matter. The student may select a second reader from the MPA faculty and the third reader will be a practitioner from the public or non-profit sector whose work is related to the student’s research. Students are to select their committee before mid-term of the semester prior to the semester he/she expects to enroll
in Capstone Research.
TEACHING METHOD
The course will include both theory and application. There will be substantial use of the Internet
to supplement traditional learning methods through a blended (hybrid) approach
to learning. This course will employ
techniques to integrate a variety of instructional techniques, encourage
independent learning, and use interactive learning methods. Students are expected to communicate frequently
with the instructor throughout the semester.
CLASS ATTENDANCE POLICY
Class attendance is mandatory at Albany State University. The ASU attendance policy states that: “All
students are expected to be in class on time for all class meetings. Attendance begins the first day of class and
all students are expected to remain in class for the entire class period unless
prior arrangements have been made with the instructor. Absenteeism cannot exceed the credit hours
for the course. This means if a class
meets two times per week, a student cannot miss class more than two times
during the semester without suffering a substantial penalty. Excessive absences may result in the
instructor lowering the grade earned by one letter grade, e.g. “A” to “B” or
“D” to “F”. Students should contact the
instructor in advance regarding any foreseen instances of absence, tardiness,
or early departure. Students must
provide valid documentation by the next class meeting for excused absence.
CLASS AND COURSE CANCELLATION/MODIFICATION
POLICY
The instructor reserves the right to make
modifications to the course syllabus and requirements that are in the best
interest of the learning environment.
Students will be notified in a timely manner of any such modifications. Moreover, in the event a class meeting needs
to be cancelled, the instructor will make every effort to notify students via
email or telephone. The topics missed
during this class will be rescheduled or an independent class assignment given.
UNIVERSITY WRITING REQUIREMENT
Albany State University has a writing reinforcement policy. Writing is integral to teaching and learning
in all disciplines. Writing activities
in this course will be evaluated and may include a variety of in-class and
out-of-class writing assignments and forms of essay writing required on
examinations. The APA Writing Style
(current edition) is used for this course.
QEP PARTICIPATION
This course is a QEP (Quality Enrichment Program) writing enhanced
course. The University's QEP initiative
is intended to encourage and support the use of innovative writing assignments
across the entire campus. Selected
writing assignments in this course may be reviewed by others who are
administering the QEP program. We may be
asked to complete some surveys or other work for the QEP program as a part of
our learning experiences together. There
may be some in-class writing assignments associated with the QEP initiative
that may not be included in the calculation of the course grade. Questions
regarding the QEP program can be addressed to Dr. Joyce Cherry. The spirit of our QEP program is that writing
takes many forms including opportunities to use emerging Web 2.0 applications
being made available by Google and other companies. You each may be asked to get a free Google
e-mail account in order for us to be able to use one or more of the new
technologies that Google is making available for discussion forums and other
forms of collaborative writing.
INTEGRATION OF TECHNOLOGY
Technology is an integral part of this course. There will be assignments including the use of computers relevant to course content. Students requiring technical assistance with Blackboard VISTA should contact the ASU Help Desk at helpdesk@asurams.edu or (229) 430-4909.
SEXUAL HARRASSMENT STATEMENT
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT
Albany State University is an equal
opportunity agency of the State of Georgia and as such does not discriminate
against students on the basis of race, national origin, religion, disability,
gender, sexual orientation, or family status.
DISABILITY AND ACCESS STATEMENT
Albany State University offers the Disability Student Services Program to
ensure equal opportunity education to all students with disabilities. All eligible students with disabilities must
have equal access to student programs, facilities, activities, and
services. Students may contact the ASU
Disability Student Services Program at (229) 430-4667 for appropriate
disclosure and accommodation procedures.
UNIVERSITY'S
COMMUNICATIONS POLICY STATEMENT
“ASU RAMmail account is the university’s official means of
electronic communication with students. Students are required to use the ASU
website (www.asurams.edu) and RAMmail for important
university’s official information on financial aid, current class schedule,
registration holds, account balances, etc. In order to communicate with
students by other means as needed, each student is required to provide the
university with his/her current telephone number(s) and mailing address via BannerWeb.“
CLASSROOM STANDARDS
Students are to adhere to all university policies on attendance,
punctuality, make up tests, plagiarism/cheating, withdrawal from class,
incomplete grades and final examinations. Please refer to the student handbook,
graduate catalog, and any departmental and program guidelines. In class, respectful and professional conduct
is required towards all. Use of cell
phones and ringing of cell phones and pagers in the classroom are not allowed.
Children are not allowed in a classroom except in an emergency. Audio and/or video recordings of class
sessions are not permitted. Students may
not sell notes of class presentations.
ONLINE HUMAN SUBJECTS READINGS
ASU Office of Sponsored Research
http://asurams.edu/orsp/index.html
If you have not done so already, complete this online training. Print and hand in a copy of the resulting
certificate with your name printed on it.
http://phrp.nihtraining.com/users/login.php
Please read the following online resources carefully.
·
Belmont
Report
·
http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/belmont.html
·
Albany
State University Office of Research and Sponsored Programs
·
University of South Florida IRB Policies and
Procedures (for information)
·
http://www.research.usf.edu/cs/irb_policies.htm
COURSE DELIVERABLES
·
Documentation
of successful IRB exemption or review if not already provided in PADM 5502
·
Certificate
of completion of online NIH training if not already done so in PADM 5502
·
Completed
Primary Research Project including literature review, appropriate statistical
analyses, findings, conclusions and all other parts as prescribed in this
course, written using APA style.
·
Formal
presentation of Primary Research Project as per the policies of the ASU MPA
program.
MIDTERM GRADE REPORT
If a student has not provided evidence of having obtained ASU IRB
approval to collect data and has not to my knowledge completed data collection
prior to the date when midterm grades are required to be communicated to the
Registrar's Office, I will report a grade of F at that time. This is not meant to be punitive. It is the simple reality.
INCOMPLETE GRADES
If a student has made substantial progress toward completion of the Capstone
project but has not completed it prior to the end of the semester, the student
will receive an Incomplete. As per
University policies, "I" grades are set to automatically convert to
"F" grades on a time schedule.
It is the responsibility of each student to keep up with this and to
complete work and make the presentation in a timely manner. Otherwise, students will fail out of the
program.
STUDENT
EVALUATION AND FINAL GRADE
The course grade will be based on the quality of the completed research
project including its content, format and your verbal presentation of it
including PowerPoint presentation. The
paper is to include at least ten peer-reviewed articles (or resources of
similar type and quality) included in the References section and also cited in
an integrated literature review.
Depending upon the type of paper, it must include appropriate data
analysis. This is primary research,
meaning that it requires collection of new data and an original contribution to
human knowledge. Qualitative research is
acceptable so long as it is based upon primary data and the analysis of the
data and the report of findings conform to appropriate formal qualitative
methods. Existing literature is NOT
primary data.
The parts of the research paper will be as follows. Use the current APA style when writing the paper. The following is a recommended outline of the research paper.
|
|
|
Cover page |
|
Introduction |
|
Literature Review |
|
Research Question and Research Model |
|
Methodology, Population and Sampling Strategy |
|
Hypotheses |
|
Findings · Descriptive statistics · Tests of hypotheses |
|
Discussion and Conclusions |
|
References |
|
Appendix 1: IRB Forms |
|
Appendix 2: Survey or Guided Interview Instrument |
REVISIONS TO SYLLABUS AND/OR COURSE
CALENDAR
As instructor, I reserve the right to make reasonable changes in the syllabus and course calendar with appropriate notice. The current syllabus for this course will be available on the course website. Revisions to this syllabus and/or the course calendar will be announced in class, with appropriate notice, and will be reflected in the edition of the syllabus and the calendar available on the web.