This course will likely be taught once per year, probably in the spring.
It is designed for those who will be consumers of research as well as those
who will be conducting research. There are no prerequisites, although
completion of IS 530 is helpful.
Completion of IS 540 or a similar course is required for those who wish to
undertake the thesis option.
Please note that this course focuses on research methods. It is NOT a statistics course although the role of statistics in the research process will receive some attention. A variety of statistics courses are available on campus and at many community colleges (lower cost option).
The student is required to complete a research project involving, on a small scale, the several steps involved in a larger research project. Other assignments are tentative, but students will thoroughly critique a research paper in a topic of interest.
Lecture notes will be available on the teacher's website. However, since the course is available to both Knoxville and distance education students, most intellectual content will be found in password protected PowerPoint slide sets on the Blackboard website. These are available a few days before the appropriate class meeting.
The first Robinson 540 class was presented in the spring 2004 term. This was a combined Knoxville site and DE course with a limited enrollment.
Please note that the topics below are listed alphabetically since the topics to be covered in a particular class may vary from term to term.
