Course Schedule and Assignments
Methods and Techniques of Social Research  -  Spring 2008
IMPORTANT:  This Schedule and Outline will be Modified Regularly.  Be sure to refresh or reload the page.
Weekly Schedule, Lecture Notes and Assignments

Click on each week's link for assignments and lecture notes:
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Weeks One and Two  - Introduction to Social Science Research  - Jan 23 to Feb 1  Class on February 1 will be in BSB 108 for anyone who wants to take the quiz in class with the instructor available to help with any problems.

Week Three:  Establishing Cause and Effect Relationships - Feb 4 to 8

Week Four:  Conceptualization and Measurement.  Feb 11 to 17. 

Week Five:  Descriptive Statistics.  February 18-24. 

Week Six:    Indexes, Scales and Typologies.  February 25-March 2.

Week Seven:  Theory and Research.   March 3-March 7 - 

Week Eight:  
Spring  Break:  March 17 to March 21

Week Nine:  The Logic of Sampling:  March 24 to 28

Week Ten:  Inferential Statistics, the Statistics of Sampling:  March 31 to April 4

Week Eleven  Ethics of Research with Human Subjects:  April 7 to April 11   -  April 11 will be the make-up statistics exam for anyone who missed the statistics part of the midterm or Quiz Ten, or who wants to try to raise their grade.  It will be in-class in FA 110, bring a calculator.

Week Twelve:  Unobtrustive Research:  April 14 to April 18  ** 

Week Thirteen:  Evaluation Research:  April 21 to April 25   -
  Friday April 25 will be a Review Class in FA110-  Attendance is REQUIRED for all students with less than 70 on their expected grade.  Allothers are welcome. 

Week Fourteen:  Experimental Research and Qualitative Field Research:  April 28 to May 2   
  Friday May 2 will be a Review Class in FA110-  Attendance is REQUIRED for all students with less than 70 on their expected grade.  All others are welcome. 

Week Fifteen:
  1. Last Class May 5  -  This will be a review class in FA110.  All students are urged to attend.  In addition to hints for the final exam, the course evaluations will be distributed.  There is no way to do these online.
  2. Final Examination 9 a.m. Friday May 9.  The exam will be on paper in FA110.  The Review Guide for the Final is on the Week Fifteen Web Page. 
Links:   statistics formulas -  Course Syllabus   - Video Tutorials - DATA SOURCES
  Instructor:  Ted Goertzel.  email:  goertzel@camden.rutgers.edu 
Office Hours:  Monday and Wednesday 3 to 4, 405 Cooper St, Rm 110 (enter from the campus side of the building on Lawrence St.).
Teaching Assistant:  Jessica Rhine jrhine@camden.rutgers.edu. Usually available during the free period on Monday and Wednesday,
look for her in Room 212 or the Computer Lab, Room 111, at the Sociology and Criminal Justice Building (405 Cooper, enter from the campus side).
Much of the material for this course is in the  SAKAI  course management system
The weekly notes and assignments and some other materials will be posted on this WEB site
 Consult the Course Syllabus for a description of this course and the required textbooks.  Since many computers today lack floppy disk drives, the publisher has made the software and data sets that comes with the Ayers book available for download on their WEB site.  If you have a good Internet connection, it is quicker and easier to install it from the WEB site than to use the cd-rom and floppies.  To do this you go to the WEB site for the textbook, then "Companion Site" and then on "Student Microcase Download."  The software is also available in the computer labs.  Computer problems are not accepted as an excuse for late assignments in this course, if your home computer doesn't work, you should use one at Rutgers.  The Babbie book has a Companion Site with practice tests and other useful material. 

This class will be a "hybrid" combination of online and face-to-face material.  We will have regular lecture and discussion classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, but class attendance will not be be counted for the grade.  Other than  the in-class midterm and final exams, attendance will not be required except for specific classes designed for students who do not complete assignments or do poorly on quizzes or examinations.  There will be assignments and quizzes due each week.  These will be submitted to the SAKAI course management system.