An Interdisciplinary and Team-Taught Research Class

• CS5014: Research Methods in Computer Science
  Computer Science Department
  Dr. Bill Frakes

• EDRE6794: Research Methods in Information Technology
  Educational Research Program, School of Education
  Dr. Gabriella Belli

Course Hours

Thursdays 7.00-9.45pm

Course Overview

This course interweaves three distinct themes:

• Acculturation into the research process, which includes an understanding of what researchers do, and the philosophy and ethics related to how they do it.

• Proficiency at communications, especially technical writing.

• Proficiency at designing studies and evaluating published studies and their results. These themes will initially be considered primarily from the perspective of researchers in computer science and in education. We will explore different ways of addressing research questions and examine how different operationalizations of a question could lead to different research designs and/or different analyses. A project driven course, students will be expected to delve into their own literature to examine and profile prevalent research methods and to critique published works.

Grading

• 55% Midterm.
• 40% Project.
• 5% Class participation.

The midterm and projects are subject to the Virginia Tech Honors System.

Course Projects

Proposals should have a 1-2 page abstract, an outline, and a list of key annotated references. Presentations should be 30 minutes long.

Some possible topics for the project might be:

• Do a study of some aspect of software production.
• Quasi-experimentation.
• Software Measurement.
• Visual presentation of data.
• Critique several experimental studies in some area of Computer Science.
• Data gathering.
• Relation of Experimental Methods to Quality Improvement.
• Statistical computing.
• Taguchi experimental design methods.
• Artificial Intelligence Research.
• Research on computing hardware.
• Co-citation analysis.

Basic Bibliography

• J. Katzer, K. Cook and W. Crouch, Evaluating Information: A Guide for Users of Social Science Research, McGraw-Hill, 4th edition 1997.
• J. Verzani, SimpleR: Using R for Introductory Statistics.
• W. Zinsser, On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, Harper Resource, 2001.

Additional Bibliography

• ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.
• ACM Turing Award Lectures: The First Twenty Years 1966-1985, Addison Wesley Professional, 1991.
• Collected algorithms of the ACM.
• T. Demarco and T. Lister, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, Dorset House, 2nd edition 1987.
• N. Fenton, Software Metrics: a Rigorous Approach, Course Technology, 2nd edition 1998.
• R. Feynman, Feynman Lectures on Computation, Perseus Books, 2000.
• R. Feynman, The Character of Physical Law, Modern Library, Modern Library, 1994.
• R. Feynman, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character, W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
• P. Fussell, Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays, Summit Books, 1988.
• M. Gardner, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, Dover Publications, 2nd edition, 1957.
• N. Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, Shambhala, 1998.
• L. Gonick and W. Smith, The Cartoon Guide to Statistics, Harper-Collins, 1994.
• R. B. Grady, Practical Software Metrics for Project Management and Process Improvement, Prentice Hall, 1992.
• P. Langley, H. A. Simon et. al., Scientific Discovery: Computational Explorations of the Creative Processes, MIT Press, 1987.
• W. May, Edges of Reality: Mind Vs Computer, Insight Books, 1996.
• H. Simon, Models of My Life, MIT Press, 1996.
• H. Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, MIT Press, 3rd edition 1996.
• E. R. Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Graphics Press, 1992.
• J. D. Watson, The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, Touchstone, 2001.

Published by Julián Urbano on January 1 of 2007