Methods of Inquiry: Quantitative Research Methods

Catalog description

This course is designed to teach the basics of social and behavioral science research, with relevance to planning for and assessing program outcomes of non-profit organizations. A particular focus will be placed on understanding evidence-based practice and how to use it in one’s own organizational management. The course will address building conceptual frameworks, research ethics, source credibility, formulating research questions and hypotheses, measurement and scale construction, surveys and interviews, sampling procedures, and research designs. Importance will be placed on the development of designing ethical, feasible, and practical research studies to answer questions of importance to non-profit leaders, including evaluating programs and the use of randomized designs. The course will demonstrate the significance and the means to construct conceptual frameworks for purposes of developing programs, curriculum, research proposal writing, and ultimately for publications. The course assignments build to the development to the final assignment that culminates in the submission of a well-crafted research proposal that is ethical and practical that can be feasibly implemented, possibly as the student’s dissertation research study.