CI665: Quantitative Methods in Communication Research
Graduate course, University of Kentucky, School of Information Science, 2022
This required graduate course is designed to provide master’s and doctoral students with a sophisticated understanding of the philosophy, theory, design, and analysis of quantitative communication research. As such, the course focuses on the scientific method and approaches communication research as part of social science research. The course will assist students in understanding the study and practice of quantitative behavioral research techniques that apply to communication. Throughout the semester students will be exposed to a variety of methodological designs and statistical procedures that will ultimately allow them to design, complete, and eventually publish the results from independent research projects. At the end of this course, students should be able to:
- Develop research ideas and turn them into testable questions;
- Design and conduct ethical social scientific studies using quantitative research approaches;
- Map theoretical constructs onto their concrete operationalizations;
- Measure latent constructs in reliable and valid ways;
- Locate, critically read, summarize, and critique reports of empirical research;
- Write transparent reports of studies using quantitative research methods.