EDCO 745 – Intermediate Statistics and Research

Course Description: This course will cover the use of techniques related to the linear model and how to use such procedures to solve problems and to answer questions in the areas of community and counseling contexts. The application of multiple regression techniques to a wide range of quantitative research designs will be covered.

This unofficial supplemental information is designed to assist doctoral students in successfully completing the course and developing the requisite knowledge to be a practitioner knowledgeable in statistics and research. This site is NOT a cheat sheet, so do not expect to find the answers or downloadable essays you can use for your assignment submissions. This site expands on course concepts and assignment instructions to make your work more productive and focused. The assignments for each module are explained and, in some cases, example assignments are shown to offer some structural guidance and to offer a model of scholarly work. While I dislike having to even state it, I will for the sake of clarity. If any of my work samples are submitted as your own, the faculty will know, as it will appear in the Turn-it-in report. You are encouraged to model your work after mine, but please do your own work.

The EDCO 745 Intermediate Statistics and Research course is an in-depth and challenging course that addresses two primary skills: Conducting statistical analyses, including data screening, and developing a literature review. The approach this course takes in growing these skills is to present the student with an end goal, which is to present a poster describing a notional research project. There is a method to the madness…here’s the rationale.

Academic conferences afford conference attendees the opportunity to learn about others’ research through a variety of means, including presentations, discussion panels, and, yes, posters. Posters are much like the traditional science fair display in which the researcher uses a poster board medium to convey the critical elements of their research. On that poster board, the researcher introduces the study, provides a background of the literature that develops the need for research, defines the research questions and hypotheses, identifies the variables, describes the instruments, presents the statistical model and analysis, and then describes and discusses the results in the context of the literature and theoretical framework. A natural characteristic of the poster is there is limited space; therefore, the writing within each section must be clear, effective, and brief so as to quickly and accurately present the study. At the end of this course, you will put together a (virtual) poster using Microsoft PowerPoint to demonstrate you have learned the skills required by any researcher.

To support the completion of this task, the course has one very important requirement: The topic selected must be supported by the course dataset and must use the variables described by that data. This is not negotiable. The purpose of this requirement is so you have the data needed to conduct your assignments without having to collect data on your own. It also provides consistency for the types of analyses to be conducted in the course. The assignments in this course are not about your dissertation topic, so please do not consider those for this assignment. I will discuss this more when I discuss the respective assignments. The assignments in this course are all about developing the skills needed to conduct quantitative research. That is it. But that is also a lot.

Summary (so far):

1.. All the work you do will be based upon a topic that is based upon the course-determined variables.
2. There is a course-provided dataset that you must use for all homework assignments.
3. The assignments you accomplish are cumulative in nature and will culminate in the development of a research presentation poster.

The purpose of this learning space is to provide additional guidance for successfully completing EDCO 745. After having taught the topic for many years and, more recently, this course since its inception, my hope is to offer some guidance that will not only assist you with your assignments, but to aid you in learning more about my favorite topic, which is quantitative research design, including statistics.

Administrative notes. Please be sure to carefully read all assignment instructions uploaded in Canvas. If there are any conflicts between what is required in the assignment and the guidance provided on this site, follow the published assignment instructions in Canvas. It is the official course; this site is only an informal supplement. My assignment guidance is not meant to replace reading the assignment instructions. My goal is to enhance, further explain, and provide structure to what is being asked of you.

To see guidance for selected assignments, click the link below.

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