Instructor: Dr. Katy Pearce, email: [email protected] , Zoom office hours by appointment

Description: This class is designed to provide students with a general understanding of social    scientific research methods employed in the study of communication. In other words, how do we study communication (and life around us)? How do we study the things that intrigue us? How do we better understand reality?

Organization: Over the course of the quarter, we will answer these questions from both a   theoretical and an applied perspective. There are multiple assignments, open note quizzes, readings, and videos for each module.

Goals: In this course, we will:

·         Introduce students to the theory and process of communication research;

·         Train students to make arguments supported by evidence;

·         Equip students with practical understanding and skills of research design;

·         Train students to become critical consumers of research;

·         Understand design choices as they relate to communication theory and research.

After taking this class, you should be able to:

·         Use theoretical concepts to critique the messages you encounter about social research;

·         Take positions regarding research and defend them by drawing on an established body of research;

·         Be more scientific and systematic in your thinking.

Textbook:

Scharrer, E., & Ramasubramanian, S., (2021). Quantitative research methods in communication: The power of numbers for socialjustice (1st ed.). Routledge.

The eBook is available to you for free through the UW Libraries at this link. But, if you wish to have the book in another eBook format, here’s the linkto the publisher site where there are

links to buy or rent the electronic textbook. This is the Amazon link to buy or rent the physical    book. It is also available for physical book purchase from the UW bookstore. It is also available as a physical book via course reserves at Odegaard.

Course management site: Course readings and communication will be in Canvas.

https://canvas.uw.edu. If you need help, please visit:

https://depts.washington.edu/uwcanvas/help/. We will occasionally send important information via Canvas announcements, so please ensure that you can receive Canvas notifications to

whatever email address you prefer. The gradebook will be maintained but may not always be

immediately up to date. Please be patient when waiting for grades to be posted. If you believe a  grade posted is inaccurate, please contact Dr. Pearce immediately. Please review the section on Grades for more on how the Canvas Gradebook works.

While the dropped grades for assignments are designed to help students and provide some    flexibility, it is important to note that the material in this course builds onto each other. It will be difficult for a student to do well in a later module without having learned material in earlier

modules. As such, we advise students to not skip material.

It is also theoretically possible for you to work ahead as long as the videos and quizzes are

posted, although we discourage this, as you will not be able to benefit from feedback sent to the entire class.

A note about summer courses: Summer courses are intense and we fit 10 weeks of material into less than 5 weeks. I absolutely understand that many of you are taking other classes, working, and have other responsibilities. But I ask you to prioritize this class as well. You also need to have consistent internet access in order to access course materials and submit assignments to Canvas and Google Drive. If you feel like you have too many other things going on or won’t be  able to get online to complete required work, please reconsider enrolling in a summer course.

Late assignments are strongly discouraged. This is to encourage you to keep up with the work and to be fair to all students. If you have an extreme situation, please inform us as soon as possible. But unforeseen things happen, so In an effort to support students' needs,

the late policy for COM 382 is that students have 3000 minutes of lateness in a “lateness bank” that they can use for the entire quarter. While we would like you to let us know if there is an

emergency, for most cases, you should submit your assignment, and then go here and enter

your name, pick the assignment from the dropdown, and type when you submitted it. You could use those 3000 minutes on a single assignment being very late or multiple assignments being   slightly late. You are also responsible for tracking your minutes. If you go over the amount, a

20% per 24 hour penalty will be assessed. If you use more than your 3000 minutes, we will

calculate how “late” the assignment is from the point that 3000 minutes was hit. If you do not

submit the form around the same time as you submitted the assignment, the 20% late fee will    be assessed. Because of the “lateness bank,” no extensions will be granted unless there is a     highly unusual extenuating circumstance. This policy does not apply to anything due on the last day of class (August 18) nor can you use lateness bank minutes for extra credit assignments.    We cannot go beyond the university grading deadline.

Schedule