This guide is the second of three guides designed to support students working on the research and analysis capstone in the MS in Higher Education program at SESP.

The focus of  MS_HE 407 Research and Analysis II is on learning data collection methods and techniques, including surveys, interviews, artifact analysis and observation. You will learn about constructing instruments and protocols used to collect data and how to code and analyze the data you collect.

One of the main deliverables for this course is to produce a poster presentation on your research. Another is to revise the literature review you completed in the previous course and begin drafting your data summary section for your final capstone project.

This research guide is designed to help show you how to use library resources to identify key empirical studies about your research topic to use as examples of how to collect appropriate data. We offer some references to books about social research to help supplement some of the course readings. We also cover tools for finding existing assessment instruments (test & measures) that you might employ in your data gathering, and provide links to tips on how to craft your poster presentations.

All of these three guides will use the same research topic as an example: “How do students who participated in study abroad as an undergraduate say the experience related to their future employment?”