Qualitative Research Workshop: Week 1

Note on Weekly Workshops: This course has been designed as an ongoing workshop in which you and your classmates work collaboratively to develop and refine your qualitative research plans. You may already be familiar with Discussion threads that focus on one topic and are limited to one week’s worth of commenting. In this course, in addition to participating in typical week-long Discussions, you will create a unique thread for your research question that will remain active throughout the course. You will return to this thread each week to post new content and refinements. Your classmates will all do the same. Your Instructor will also review and comment on your process.
As you build on your unique thread, you will also be asked to visit your classmates’ threads and share your perspective, advice, feedback, and critiques of their work. You and your classmates will be encouraged to use the Workshop threads as a sounding board for new ideas and for activity related to the formal weekly Workshop assignments. Keep in mind that the more you participate, the more you and your classmates will get out of the course experience.

In this week’s Workshop, you will introduce yourself to your classmates and reflect on where you are in the preparation for your capstone.

In this Workshop you will describe the following:

• The topic as your passion
• Your topic as a research problem, purpose, and question as it stands right now
• Challenges you are experiencing in developing a good research problem, purpose, and question (or, if you are happy with them, share the research problem, purpose and research question)

Use the “Litmus Test” document found in the Learning Resources to guide your self-reflection.

To prepare for this Workshop:

• Review the criteria outlined in the research “Litmus Test,” which can be found in this week’s Learning Resources.
• Review the qualitative checklist for Chapters 1 through 3. You can find the appropriate checklist in the Learning Resources through the links to the PhD dissertation program and EdD doctoral study web pages, as applicable to your program.

By Day 6

Create a unique Discussion thread for yourself. In the thread, submit your current prospectus and a brief reflection of your progress, including a proposed research question derived from your existing prospectus, as well as any changes and redirections you have identified.

Be sure to include responses to the following:

• Reflect on how well your research problem meets the “Litmus Test.” At this point, you recognize that this is a work in progress, so identify what could be done to better reveal a research gap.
• Summarize the skills and subject matter areas you will need to master to expertly respond to the qualitative checklist for Chapters 1 through 3.
• Propose a research question to be developed throughout the rest of this course.