AEE 578 Scientific Inquiry in Agricultural and Extension Education. 3(3-0). Philosophy, design, interpretation and practice of scientific research in agricultural and extension education, with a particular focus on the skills necessary to be an effective and critical "consumer" of research that is practiced within the field.

1. to provide you the knowledge and skill to be an effective and critical “consumer” of research conducted and published in agricultural and  extension education, and;
2. to provide you with a framework for formulating or designing your own research in agricultural and extension education.

1. Develop an understanding of the philosophies of science that are used in research in agricultural and extension education
2. Understand the characteristics that distinguish descriptive, correlational, qualitative, quasi-experimental, and experimental research in agricultural and extension education.
3. Understand the basic concepts of validity and reliability, and their applications in educational research
4. Understand the concept of measurable questions in research in agricultural and extension education.
5. Understand the basic concepts of sampling and statistical inference in research in agricultural and extension education
6. Understand the relationship between the research problem, the research question, the research design, research data collection, research data analysis, and conclusions of educational research.

There are no specific prerequisites for this course other than being a graduate student. This is a required course for all graduate degrees in the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education.

The textbook for this course is "How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education " (7th edition) by Jack R. Fraenkel and Norman E. Wallen. The publisher is McGraw HIll. The ISBN is 978-0-07-352596-9. 

There is a web site of interactive tests, powerpoints over each chapter and other support materials for this text. The url for that site is:  http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073525960/student_view0/.  There is some good information here. You should check it out.

If you are enrolled for this course through North Carolina State, you have complete access to the NCSU library. The URL that explains all the library resources available to you is http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/distance/ If you need help logging into the library please contact the NCSU course instructor.

1. Weekly worksheets.  There will be a weekly worksheet or activity sheet on most weeks to be completed. This is to help guide your reading and viewing of on-line materials. These worksheets are to be submitted via mail, fax or electronic mail the following week. The means the Class 1 assignment is due at Class 2, Class 2 is due at Class 3, etc. The weekly assignments will count 40% of your grade.  Some of the assignments will be very involved. 

2. Research Proposal or Grant Proposal. You will write a proposal for conducting a research study or for obtaining a grant. This assignment is based on the content of class 5.  The specific instructions for this assignment can found in the proposal assignment guideline. This assignment will count for 10% of your course grade. This is due Nov. 2.


3. Develop a survey instrument. Much of the research conducted in agricultural and extension education is survey research. The quality of this type of research is largely dependent upon the quality of the survey instrument. Therefore one major assigment in this class is is to develop a quality survey instrument that is both valid and reliable. Before you can develop a survey instrument, you have to have specific research questions or hypotheses you are trying to answer. So you will probably be using the information from assignment 2 as the starting point for instrument development. The first draft of your instrument is due Nov. 9. The instructor will provide feedback and you will turn in the final version on Nov. 23. This assignment will count for 10% of your grade.


4. Article Critique. You will be given a research manuscript submitted to a profession journal to review. Details about this assignment will be provided later. The major goal of this assignment is to see if your can distinguish between quality research and poor research. At the end of your critique you will make a recommendation as to whether or not the manuscript should be published in a professional journal. This assignment is due during the final week of class. This assignment will count for 10% of your grade.

5. Exams. Two exams will be given.  One exam will be given October 19 and will cover the first half of the course.  The second exam will given during final exam week and will cover the 2nd half of the course. Each exam will be multiple choice and will contain about 50 questions. If you are taking the course via the World Wide Web you can come to campus to take the exams or identify a proctor in your local area who is willing to administer the exams. The proctor should be a minister, librarian, county extension director, school administrator or other non-related, respected individual in the community.  The exams will be mailed to the proctor. Or if you desire, the exams can be posted on Moodle and you can take the exams online. Each exam will count for 15% of your grade (30% total).

This course is graded using the + and - system. The breakdown of the grading system is as follows

A+ = 97%
A =  94-96%
A- =  90-93%
Bt =  87-89%
B =  84-86%
B- = 80-83%
C+ = 77-79%
C = 74-76%
C- = 70-73%
D+ = 67-69%
D = 64-66%
D- = 60-63%
F = 59%

Graduate level work should be:

A. Neat - There is no excuse for sloppy work at the graduate level. You can have fantastic ideas and thoughts but if your work is sloppy, colleagues will think your thoughts and ideas are sloppy also. Hundreds of resumes are thrown into the trash every year because they aren't crisp and sharp.

B. Use Proper Grammar - words should be spelled correctly, sentences should be complete, paragraphs should be paragraphs, rules of correct English usage should be followed, etc.

 Both faculty and students at North Carolina State University have a responsibility to maintain academic integrity. An informational brochure about academic integrity is available from the university and students are encouraged to obtain a copy. Additional information is contained in the NCSU Code of Student Conduct. Academic Dishonesty Scholarly activity is marked by honesty, fairness and rigor. A scholar does not take credit for the work of others, does not take unfair advantage of others, and does not perform acts which frustrate the scholarly efforts of others. The violation of any of these principles is academic dishonesty. Academic dishonesty includes the giving, taking, or presenting of information or material by a student with the intent of unethically or fraudulently aiding oneself or another person on any work which is to be considered in the determination of a grade or the completion of academic requirements.

The Honor Pledge - The students and faculty of NCSU believe that the willingness of students to affirm and adhere to the essential values of honesty and integrity in all their academic endeavors is exemplified in the Honor Pledge: I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this test or assignment. It is university policy that all students sign the Honor Pledge on tests and assignments for each course as specified by the instructor.

LABORATORY SAFETY

This course does not have a laboratory. However, you will be working on your computer during the lessons. Thousands of computers are damaged each year because of power surges, and most of these come through the phone line and damage the modem. You are strongly encouraged to get a modem surge protector and/or to unplug you computer include the modem/phone connection during stormy weather.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 mandate that the faculty provide reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities.  These accommodations are based on the premise that students with disabilities need an equal opportunity to acquire information and demonstrate what they have learned; not have an advantage over others in the class.  This does not mean lowering class standards, but it may mean having students learn and express knowledge in a different mode.

All students registered with the NC State Office of Disability Services for Students (DSS) will provide the instructor with an accommodation letter.  This letter verifies that appropriate medical documentation is on file and that the student has a substantiated disability requiring effective reasonable accommodations. Accommodations for which the student qualifies will also be included in the letter.  If you have not registered with the DSS and have a learning disability, you should register in Suite 1900, Student Health Center.

If you have a documented disability, please schedule an appointment with the course instructor to discuss academic accommodations.

There are no group field trips or field trip costs associated with this course.

1. Each week you will click on the class link that corresponds to that week. You should complete the lesson some time during that week.

2. When you go the the weekly lesson, you are to first view the list of topics for the lesson. This is your guide as to what you should learn.

3. Next, complete the pretest. You will receive a score immediately after you take the pretest. The pretest is designed to serve as an advanced organizer for the lesson materials (in other words to motivate you to learn). You should not expect to score high on the pretest. If you did, there would be no need to take the class. Please type your e-mail address in the block that asks for it at the end of the pre-test. This lets me know you have completed the pretest. It has no bearing on your grade unless you are on the borderline. If you are on the borderline and have completed all the pretests during the semester, your grade will be bumped to the higher grade.

4.  One of the benefits of taking a course on-line is the opportunity to experience a multitude of varied materials found on the Internet. Under the list of learning activities there will be a list of web sites, journal articles, papers and other materials to be reviewed. In this class we try to utilize the power of the World Wide Web (WWW). You are to visit each site that is listed under the learning activities and read or view the materials. For some of the materials, you night  need to have the Acrobat Reader on your computer. If you don't have this program, it can be downloaded for free from Adobe.

5. Typically the last item listed under the learning activities will be a PowerPoint presentation on the lesson topic. When you click the link to the PowerPoint presentation, you will have two options. One option will be to view each slide utilizing your WWW web viewer. The other option will be to download the PowerPoint presentation. If you have PowerPoint on your computer, you may want to download the presentation to your computer, and then open and run the presentation on your computer. This is more time efficient than viewing each slide individually on the WWW. Also, you have the option of printing the slide show and can set your printer to print six slides per page.

6. On most weeks you will complete a worksheet that relates to the weekly lesson. That is to be completed and e-mailed (or faxed) to the instructor of record for the course.  The e-mail address is gary_moore@ncsu.edu and the fax number is 919-515-9060.  You might want to print out the worksheet early in the lesson and then refer to it as you complete the various learning activities. E-mailed assignments are always graded prior to other types of submissions.

7. You should establish a standard time every week to work on this class and then do it if you are taking the course on the web. You don't want to get behind because it will be hard to catch up. In a typical on-campus class you would spend 3 hours in the classroom and 6-9 hours reading and doing assignments during a week. This class will take similar time commitments.