Week 1 Seminar
Policy and public administration research
Research can be different in different subject areas, and social
science research in particular is a more heterogeneous field than, say, medical
research. Indeed, psychology, business and policy research are examples of
subjects with very different research guidelines. This seminar will help you
crystallise the particularities of policy and public administration research in
the wider social science picture.
To prepare for this Seminar:
Review this week’s Learning Resources with a focus on the
distinctive features of public administration and policy research
To complete this Seminar:
Initial Response
By Saturday (Day 3), in a response of approximately 300-500
words, address the following issues/questions:
Think of a recent important purchase you have made, or event you
have organised. Think of the decision-making process leading to the choices you
have made – i.e. of the product or service you chose to purchase over similar
products or services, or of the options you chose for an event over
alternatives available.
·
Would you argue that the process
leading to such mundane choices is research?
·
What similarities and differences
can you identify between such processes and academic research?
·
How does public administration and
policy research differ from other social science academic research?
Collaboration
By Wednesday (Day 7), post three to five responses to your
colleagues by:
Comparing your views on the issues posted by your colleagues
Offering constructive comments on your colleague’s posts
Offering contributions based upon your prior experience
Extending the discussion into new but relevant areas
Modelling or promoting critical reflection from what you have
read
Ensure that you spread your Collaboration posts across at least
3 separate days of each week. This will help maximise the value of your
collaboration with colleagues and serve to meet the learning objectives for
each activity.
This week’s Collaboration is not graded, but you will receive
feedback from your Instructor to help you improve your work. Please take
advantage of this opportunity to learn from your Instructor’s feedback – give
the assignment your full effort and ask for clarification on any feedback you
do not understand.
Submit your Initial Response to the Turnitin link provided and
post to the Seminar Forum.
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Week 2 Seminar
Evaluative research
In this seminar, you are asked to consult policy research
documents in relation to the Olympic Games, and then to produce a short
critique evaluating their contribution to the policy domain.
To prepare for this Seminar:
Review this week’s Learning Resources with a focus on
measurement and methodological considerations
Focus on the policy research documents highlighted in your
Learning Resources
To complete this Seminar:
Initial Response
By Sunday (Day 4), in a response of approximately 300-500
words, address the following issues/questions in respect of the policy
research documents provided:
·
Are the aims and objectives clear?
·
Who commissioned the research? What
is their agenda?
·
What type of measurements are used
in the different documents?
Collaboration
By Wednesday (Day 7), post three to five responses to your
colleagues by:
Reviewing your colleagues’ posts and responding to several of
them
Comparing and contrasting the policy in the documents provided
with a similar one in your country
Ensure that you spread your Collaboration posts across at least
3 separate days of each week. This will help maximise the value of your
collaboration with colleagues and serve to meet the learning objectives for
each activity.
This week, you will be graded only on your Initial Response to
the Seminar questions and receive a formative evaluation of your Collaboration
responses. Next week, you will be graded on your Collaboration responses for
both Weeks 2 and 3 as well as your synthesis of the Seminar topic.
Submit your Initial Response to the Turnitin link provided and
post to the Seminar Forum.
Next week, you will continue this Seminar by exploring the
process through which one could progress from a research topic to a research
question(s).
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Week 2 Personal Development Portfolio
Research and you
To prepare for this Assignment:
Revisit your work in the first week’s seminar
Revisit your work in the second week’s seminar
To complete this Assignment:
By Wednesday (Day 7), submit a response of approximately
500 words that addresses the following questions:
·
What skills do you think you require
to pursue an independent research project in public administration and policy?
·
Has your understanding of academic
research been challenged by the module content over the past two weeks?
·
What transferrable skills do you
think you could develop in your research?
·
To what areas of life can you apply
these skills in the future?
This assignment is not graded, but you will receive feedback
from your Instructor to help you improve your work. Please take advantage of
this opportunity to learn from your Instructor's feedback. Give the assignment
your full effort and ask for clarification on any feedback you do not
understand.
Reminder: Your first deliverable for the Module Project
will be assigned next week.
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Week 3 Seminar
Academic research: an integration of the literature review and
formulation of a research question (continued from Week 2)
In this week’s Seminar, you will take your thinking of a
research topic further to include specific research questions. Starting with
the documents reviewed in Week 2 seminar, you will identify more academic forms
of research on the same topic, identify 3-5 different perspectives on the link
between the Olympic Games and economic or/and social regeneration, compare and
contrast them, identify areas which those perspectives do not address and
propose a research project which might address that area.
On the basis of that ‘gap’ in the literature, you will then
formulate a research aim / question along the lines of:
The aim of this research is to elucidate / explain / explore the
impact of A on B / the relationship between A and B / the determinants of B /
consequences of A in the context of C.
For example:
The aim of this research is to elucidate the impact of grant X
(introduced by policy Y) on the growth of social enterprises in Ghana.
Expressed as a question, this becomes:
What is the impact of grant X on the growth of social
enterprises in Ghana?
To prepare for this Seminar:
Review the policy research documents offered for Week 2 seminar
Review the ABC rule put forward above
To complete this Seminar:
Identify academic research articles on the topic of regeneration
in the aftermath of Olympic Games illustrative of 3-5 different perspectives
Compare and contrast these perspectives in one paragraph
Identify areas which those perspectives do not address and
propose a research question which might address that area
Formulate that research question as prescribed by the ABC rule
above
Collaboration, continued
Until Monday (Day 5), post three to five responses to your
colleagues considering the following points in your discussion:
·
Are there different research
questions possible starting from any one set of literature gaps identified in
the seminar?
·
Propose an alternative research aim,
in accordance with the ABC rule, to each of the 3-5 colleagues to whom you
respond
·
How are these academic research
questions different from those at the heart of the policy analysis discussed in
Week 2 seminar?
Review your colleagues’ posts and respond to several who offer a
perspective that differs from your own. Provide an example that either
challenges or corroborates their arguments.
Ensure that you spread your Seminar posts across at least three
separate days of each week. This will help maximise the value of your
collaboration with classmates and serve to meet the learning objectives for
each activity.
Individual
Synthesis
By Wednesday (Day 7), post a final summary of approximately
250 words of what you have learned from this Seminar. Consider different
research audiences and different uses for policy research, as emerged from your
seminars.
Submit your summary to the Turnitin link provided and post to
the Seminar Forum.
Module Project
Required
Public service impact across public sector management paradigms
Over the course of the last 3 weeks, you have analysed public
services from a service user’s perspective. As such you have looked into
impact, outputs, outcomes, and then went deeper into the issues to establish
the values at the very core of delivering a public service.
For this first deliverable of your Module Project, you will
critically review scholarly understandings of public service impact across the
three public sector management paradigms: traditional public administration,
new public management and networked governance.
To prepare for this Assignment:
Review the first three weeks’ Learning Resources with a focus on
the intended Learning Objectives so far.
Review the Week 1 Module Project preview and look ahead to the
upcoming deliverables in Week 5 and Week 8.
Identify 3-5 scholarly resources that you will use to inform
your work throughout the Module Project.
To complete this Assignment:
By Wednesday (Day 7), submit a
brief (approximately 500 words) paper in which you address the following:
·
How is impact conceptualised in the
papers you have identified so far?
·
What public service outputs and
outcomes do the authors explore?
·
What indications are there, in these
papers, about the public sector management paradigms characterising the
assumptions about impact?
Fully justify all your assumptions and claims using your own
experience, the Learning Resources or your own research. Cite your work using
the Harvard Liverpool Referencing System.
Module Project Outline
In addition to your paper, complete a one-page outline for the
entirety of your Module Project. Include key details regarding outputs,
outcomes and impact and 3-5 scholarly resources that you will use to inform
your work. Cite your resources using the Harvard Liverpool Referencing System.
Include your outline in the same Word document as your paper.
This assignment should be prepared and submitted to Turnitin
using the Word (.doc or .docx) format no later than midnight your local time.
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Week 4 Seminar
Your research design
There is a strong link between your research aim questions and
your research design. For example, if your aim is to ‘explain’ the relationship
between A and B, then your research questions are likely to start with ‘what’,
‘why’ and ‘to what extent’. More often than not, this choice of words triggers
a deductive, positivist research design and to employ quantitative research
methods (and if you use qualitative data, you are likely to analyse it
quantitatively or qualitatively as a means of corroborating your quantitative
analysis and findings). If however your research aim is to ‘explore’ A and B,
then your research questions are likely to begin with ‘how’ which then triggers
an inductive, interpretivist (relativist) research design reliant on
qualitative methods for data collection and analysis.
To prepare for this Seminar:
Review this week’s Learning Resources with a focus on the
distinction between inductive and deductive research approaches and positivist
and interpretivist research philosophies
To complete this Seminar:
Initial Response
By Sunday (Day 4), in a response of approximately 300-500 words, address the
following issues/questions:
·
In your everyday life, are you more
likely to observe rules than the exceptions to the rules?
·
Do you believe in universal truths?
In other words, do you think reality is seen the same by different people?
·
Do you believe that ‘numbers talk’
and should be trusted?
·
Do you think the researcher needs to
be objective in relation to the object of their research?
You may feel stronger about some of these questions but not
about others. In general, the more definite yes’s you have to these questions,
the more likely it is that you are a deductivist, positivist researcher who
believes in numbers and measurement. The more no’s you have, the more likely it
is that you have an innate preference for inductive, interpretivist research
using qualitative data. In your discussion, do explore this ‘verdict’, as well
as the questions above.
Collaboration
By Wednesday (Day 7), post three to five responses to your colleagues by:
Offering contributions based upon your prior experience
Extending the discussion into new but relevant areas
Modelling or promoting critical reflection from what you have
read
Ensure that you spread your
Collaboration posts across at least 3 separate days of each week. This will
help maximise the value of your collaboration with colleagues and serve to meet
the learning objectives for each activity.
This week, you will be graded only on
your Initial Response to the Seminar questions and receive a formative
evaluation of your Collaboration responses. Next week, you will be graded on
your Collaboration responses for both Weeks 4 and 5, as well as your synthesis
of the Seminar topic.
Submit your Initial Response to the Turnitin link provided and
post to the Seminar Forum.
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Week 4 Personal Development Portfolio
Research and you
For this second PDP Assignment, you will further explore your
personal take on research and further reflect on how your skill development in
this module can contribute to personal development.
To prepare for this Assignment:
Review your individual work and the discussions from Week 4
Seminar
Review your required resources with a focus on epistemology
Review the work undertaken previously in your Week 2 PDP
To complete this Assignment:
By Wednesday (Day 7), submit a response of approximately 500 words that addresses the
following questions:
·
To what extent are you personally
inclined towards positivistic or interpretivist epistemological orientations,
as emerged from your answers to the Week 4 Seminar questions?
·
Was the ‘diagnosis’ of inherent
positivism or interpretivism surprising to you?
·
To what extent do you think your
epistemological predisposition is stable in your lifetime?
·
To what extent do you find your
epistemological position to be the same in all areas of your life (e.g.
personal, professional)
·
What do you feel you have learned
about yourself through the Week 4 Seminar exercise?
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This assignment should be prepared and submitted to Turnitin
using the Word (.doc or .docx) format no later than midnight your local time.
Week 5 Seminar
Qualitative research design (continued from Week 4)
Last week, you analysed your research orientation with the aim
of informing your choice of a research design for your independent research
study. In this seminar, you will explore whether or not qualitative research
design is an option for you.
To prepare for this Seminar:
Review this week’s Learning Resources with a focus on the
methodological underpinnings of qualitative research designs and on qualitative
data analysis
Review your Week 4 Seminar as necessary
To complete this Seminar:
Collaboration, (continued)
Until Monday (Day 5), post three to five responses to your colleagues considering the
following points in your discussion:
Reflect on what aspects of your research orientation
(philosophy) contribute, directly or indirectly, to the choice of adopting, or
not adopting a qualitative research design in your project
·
To what degree or in what
circumstances do you trust qualitative data?
·
What would determine distrust in
qualitative data?
·
Could you think of any qualitative
data which is not expressed as a narrative?
·
How would you analyse that data?
Ensure that you spread your Seminar
posts across at least three separate days of each week. This will help maximise
the value of your collaboration with classmates and serve to meet the learning
objectives for each activity.
Individual Synthesis
By Wednesday (Day 7), post a final summary of approximately 250 words of what you have
learned from this Seminar in relation to research design and specifically
qualitative approaches. Incorporate examples from the Learning Resources, your
own research and/or your own experience to support your work.
Submit your summary to the Turnitin link provided and post to
the Seminar Forum.
Week 6 Seminar
Quantitative research designs
In this seminar, you link your research orientation with your
choice of research designs.
To prepare for this Seminar:
Review this week’s Learning Resources with a focus on
methodological underpinnings of quantitative research design and quantitative
data analysis
To complete this Seminar:
Initial Response
By Sunday (Day 4), in a response of approximately 300-500 words, address the
following issues/questions:
Reflect on what aspects of your research orientation
(philosophy) contribute, directly or indirectly, to the choice of adopting, or
not adopting a quantitative research design in your project
·
To what degree or in what
circumstances do you trust quantitative data?
·
What would determine distrust in
quantitative data?
Drawing on the Learning Resources, or your own research, fully
justify all your assumptions and claims. Cite your work using the Harvard
Liverpool Referencing System.
Collaboration
By Wednesday (Day 7), post three to five responses to your colleagues by:
Offering constructive comments on your colleagues’ perspectives
Offering contributions based upon your prior experience
Extending the discussion into new but relevant areas
Modelling or promoting critical reflection from what you have
read
Ensure that you spread your
Collaboration posts across at least 3 separate days of each week. This will
help maximise the value of your collaboration with colleagues and serve to meet
the learning objectives for each activity.
This week, you will be graded only on
your Initial Response to the Seminar questions and receive a formative
evaluation of your Collaboration responses. Next week, you will be graded on
your Collaboration responses for both Weeks 6 and 7, as well as your synthesis
of the Seminar topic.
Submit your Initial Response to the Turnitin link provided and
post to the Seminar Forum.
Next week, you will continue this Seminar by considering
analysis of qualitative data quantitatively and analysis of qualitative data
quantitatively.
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Module Project
Required
Your research project
For this second deliverable of your Module Project, you will
decide whether your research design will be qualitative or quantitative.
To prepare for this Assignment:
Review the past two weeks’ Learning Resources with a focus on
research designs and their methodological underpinnings
To complete this Assignment:
By Wednesday (Day 7), submit a (approximately 1,500 words) paper in which you
outline your methodological choices in regards to the following points:
·
Your research orientation
(philosophy)
·
Your research approach (inductive /
deductive)
·
Your choice of a qualitative,
quantitative or mixed research design
Fully justify all your assumptions and claims using your own
experience, the Learning Resources or your own research. Cite your work using
the Harvard Referencing System.
This assignment should be prepared and submitted to Turnitin
using the Word (.doc or .docx) format no later than midnight your local time.
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Week 7 Seminar
Mixed-method research (continued from Week 6)
In this seminar, previous understandings about the distinction
between qualitative and quantitative methods will be challenged and in doing
so, your understanding of research designs will be strengthened.
To prepare for this Seminar:
Could you think of an instance in which you would be analysing
qualitative data quantitatively?
Could you think of an instance in which you would be analysing
quantitative data qualitatively?
To complete this Seminar:
Collaboration (continued)
Until Monday (Day 5), post three to five responses to your colleagues considering the
following points in your discussion:
Could you think of an instance in which you would be analysing
qualitative data quantitatively?
To what extent are we all interpretivist even when constructing
quantitative research?
Ensure that you spread your Seminar
posts across at least three separate days of each week. This will help maximise
the value of your collaboration with classmates and serve to meet the learning
objectives for each activity.
Individual Synthesis
By Wednesday (Day 7), post a final summary of approximately 250 words of what you have
learned from this Seminar. Incorporate examples from the Learning Resources,
your own research and/or your own experience to support your arguments around
the benefits and shortcomings of mixed method research compared to purely
qualitative and purely quantitative designs.
Submit your summary to the Turnitin link provided and post to
the Seminar Forum.
Week 7 Personal Development Portfolio
Research and you
For this final PDP submission, you will consider your skills as
a researcher. Put your independent research project aside for a moment and,
regardless of whether you will choose to conduct it through a quantitative,
qualitative or mixed-method research design, consider your data collection and
analysis skills and training.
To prepare for this Assignment:
Review the material of Weeks 5, 6 and 7
Review your prior PDP submissions as necessary
To complete this Assignment:
By Wednesday (Day 7), submit an approximately 1,250-1,500-word response that addresses
the following questions:
·
Are you a person who enjoys speaking
to people?
·
How are your literacy skills?
·
Are you a person with very good
numerical skills?
·
Have you undertaken any training,
formal or informal, on qualitative or quantitative research methods?
·
Can you think of examples in which
you demonstrated skills which may be useful in a qualitative research design?
·
Can you think of examples in which
you demonstrated skills which may be useful in a quantitative research design?
Incorporate and update, as necessary, your Week 2 and Week 4 PDP
submissions into the same Word document as this PDP entry. This new entry
should be approximately 500 words, while the full PDP should be 1,250-1,500
words.
This assignment should be prepared and submitted to Turnitin
using the Word (.doc or .docx) format no later than midnight your local time.
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Week 8 Seminar
Policy evaluation (Synthesis)
In this week’s seminar, think of a policy in your own country
which has prompted sufficient controversy to suggest the need for formal
evaluation.
To prepare for this Seminar:
Review this week’s Learning Resources with a focus on your
learning objectives
To complete this Seminar:
Initial Response
By Saturday (Day 3), in a response of approximately 300-500 words, address the
following issues/questions:
·
Which policy, in which country, do
you find to be controversial enough to merit formal or informal evaluation?
·
Which perspectives do you wish to
consider in the evaluation of the chosen policy?
·
What are the effects of that policy
and from which perspective are you forming that judgement?
·
In investigating the effects of the
policy, which type of research design seems appropriate and why?
Fully justify all your assumptions and claims using your own
experience, the Learning Resources or your own research. Cite your work using
the Harvard Liverpool Referencing System.
This week, you will receive a
formative evaluation of your Initial Response to the Seminar questions and you
will be graded only on your Collaboration responses.
Collaboration
By Wednesday (Day 7), post three to five responses to your colleagues by:
Recognising the criteria which have been used to assess the
effectiveness of the policies
Recognising the type of evaluations put forward –formative or
summative
Suggesting alternative research designs, where appropriate
Offering constructive comments on your colleague’s posts
Offering contributions based upon your prior experience
Extending the discussion into new but relevant areas
Modelling or promoting critical reflection from what you have
read
Ensure that you spread your
Collaboration posts across at least 3 separate days of each week. This will
help maximise the value of your collaboration with colleagues and serve to meet
the learning objectives for each activity.
Submit your Initial Response to the Turnitin link provided and
post to the Seminar Forum.
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Module Project
Required
Your research project
For this third deliverable of your Module Project, you will
elaborate more on your choice of research design and then you will go back to
the ‘scenario’ which you have chosen for your independent research project. At
the start of your Module Project, you assumed the position of either a policy
analyst in a NGO or think tank or a government policy officer. You were also
asked to identify a public policy problem or service which needs evaluating. In
the past few weeks, you have considered some literature sources to help you
understand the policy problem at heart of your research, and indicated
methodological underpinnings for your investigation as well as indicative thoughts
on your research design.
To prepare for this Assignment:
Review this week’s Learning Resources with a focus on research
designs and on policy evaluation
Review your previous submissions in Weeks 3 and 5
To complete this Assignment:
By Wednesday (Day 7), submit a 5,000-word paper in which you address the
following:
Align the research aim, questions and research orientation with
your choice of a research design
Identify two forms of alignment, reflected in two alternative
choices of research design; if you are considering a mixed-methods design, your
two alternatives could be different configurations of mixed-methods
Reflect on the benefits and shortcomings of various forms of
alignment in your research project
Are there any ethical issues that you need to consider?
Fully justify all your assumptions and claims using your own
experience, the Learning Resources or your own research. Cite your work using
the Harvard Liverpool Referencing System.
Incorporate, and update as necessary, your Week 3 and Week 5 Module
Project assignments into the same Word document as this Module Project
submission.
This assignment should be prepared and submitted to Turnitin
using the Word (.doc or .docx) format no later than midnight your local time.
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