Capstone Experience--Community-Based Research
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C & E Soc 500

WELCOME!

The idea of a capstone course is to provide you with a culminating, integrative learning experience.  A good capstone course should help connect the theoretical, methodological, practical, and substantive parts of your experience as a major.  It should also be a liminal, transitional experience as you move from being an undergraduate student into either the professional world or the graduate student world.   I attempt to do that be organizing the course around a real world project that provides you with the opportunity to both pull together things you should have learned in the major and professional skills like problem-solving, project planning and management, and the integration of research an action.

Facilitating a course that is designed to produce outcomes for both the community and the students is one of the most exciting things I do. It can be a bit unnerving at times, since the success of the entire project requires fitting so many pieces together in a tight timeline. But I have done it enough to know that it can work, and can have real impacts. So if you like learning by doing, are comfortable with  unpredictability, and like to work in collaborative contexts, this course is for you.

COURSE GOALS

I have two goals for this course:

1.  to support the construction of "institutional memory" of Madison's Neighborhood House in ways that will enhance its future effectveness.

2.  to learn how to conduct community-based research by doing a CBR project start-to-finish, and to learn specific research methods and ways of working with community groups.

SPECIAL LEARNING NEEDS

Please inform me if you have special learning needs so I can adjust the course to meet those needs.

MY PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

When teachers realize they still have things to learn and students realize they have things to teach, and when everyone is in an atmosphere where teachers are encouraged to learn and students are encouraged to teach, everyone benefits.

My job is to create and maintain a learning atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable taking intellectual and interpersonal risks, and to help you do your part in maintaining that atmosphere.  I welcome critiques of ideas, especially my own.  But please practice respect for each other as people while you question and criticize each others' ideas. 

PROFESSOR CONSULTATIONS

Please consult with me whenever you have a question about course assignments, lectures, discussions, readings, or project activities. I will gladly discuss questions you have about the course material. Please also fee welcomed to consult with me whenever you find yourself interested in the issues raised in the course and you want to discuss further or get more information.

COURSE ORGANIZATION

There may be times in this class when the phrase "course organization" will sound like an oxymoron. Project courses like this are somewhat like a line of dominoes--knock one down and the rest behind them also fall over. Thankfully, there aren't that many dominoes, and they are easy to set up again. The timeline of this project is not dependent on just you and me, but on the university bureaucracy and the community organization we will be working with. For the most part, then, our class meetings will focus on troubleshooting where we are in the process. However, we will also be engaged in a variety of in-class training exercises. You will learn how to do research from start to finish in this class, and to connect it to real community work.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Academic integrity is normally defined as things like avoiding plagiarism (http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QuotingSources.html), not cheating on tests, and sometimes not collaborating.  Those issues will be complicated for us, since we may be using sources who wish to remain unidentified, we will not have texts, and we will be collaborating both with each other and with community members.  We will also be adding an academic integrity principle that isn't nomrally discussed in courses.  Because we are doing work that is responding to a request by a community organization, a crucial principle of academic integrity is for us to do our very best work on a very strict timeline.  This course must be a priority in your life, because other people will be counting on what you produce.  If you can't make this course a top priority, you shouldn't take it.  I also know that some of you are rapidly approaching graduation, with all its attendant anxieties and distractions of applying for jobs and grad schools.  If you are experiencing those or other distractions, please talk with me.  I may be able to help or at least connect you with someone who can.

COURSE WORKLOAD

In general, the workload for this class is average. The challenge is that it can be quite uneven so you need to manage your time effectively.

You will see that the first few weeks are heavy with reading and activity. I have, for the most part, "front-loaded" the preparatory work of the course so we can move into the project as quickly as possible. The formal reading load reduces more and more the further we get into the semester.

It is also possible that we will not meet at some points in the semester. During part of the course you may be spending time scheduling appoints, collecting data, and drafting a report. It will not be crucial for us to meet as a class during those times and I want to give you as much time as possible for doing the project work.

CLASS PROCESS

This class will be a group effort. My job is to be a project manager, trainer, and guide. Your job is to tell me what you need to learn to carry out the tasks of the project, what you need to have clarified to keep the project on track, and what skills you can bring to help troubleshoot when things go wrong.

READINGS

Most readings are available on the Internet, though many require that you be logged onto the UW network, and some may be available through the online library reserve system. I take every effort to post links that will work from on and off campus.  When you are off campus, you will likely need to login to access some of the readings. 

There will be both required and recommended readings.  

Please print out the readings or bring your pda/laptop to class with an electronic version.

COURSE WEBSITE

This course is supported online, at Learn@UW  This is the site we will use to manage online discussions, upload interviews and drafts, etc.  It will be a basic workspace.  It may take a little getting used to. Please let me know if you are unfamiliar with it and I will be happy to give you a tour.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING

Because this project is being designed jointly with you and a community organization, it is impossible to say for sure right now what we will be doing. There is a tentative ouline for the projectwith Neighborhood House posted on Learn@UW. The course calendar below will show the tasks that need to be accomplished as they become clear .

1. "Weekly Questions" (1 point per week=13 or more points).  Each week you will need to submit at least two questions to guide our work for that class period. On weeks that we have readings your questions should focus at least partly on the readings.  On all weeks you can also include questions about what we are doing in the project itself. The purpose is to encourage you to read critically and to help me learn what is and is not making sense to you. This should be easy and you don't have to limit yourself to two questions.  If you are not curious enough to ask at least two questions every week then you're in the wrong place. Submit to Learn@UW dropbox (though we may switch to the forum if you want). Due before beginning of class each week (you can submit them even if you will be absent).  No credit for late questions.  You are responsible for making sure that you have successfully uploaded questions to Learn@UW, so verify that you succeeded. There are extra opportunities to ask questions if you need them.
   
2. "Reflective Strengths and Weaknesses" essay (10 points).  This essay will be due the beginning of the second class meeting.  It should be about 500 words and should be your reflection on your own strengths and weaknesses in relation to the project (or at least what you know of it).  I won't grade you at all on your strengths and weaknesses--only on the extent to which you've made clear that you've reflected carefully on what they are.  You can see my example at the end of this syllabus.
3. "Weekly Reflections" (2 points per week = 26 or more points).  Each week after we meet you will need to submit two paragraphs (roughly 250 words) reflecting on what happened in class and/or what is happening in the project and what you are learning or feeling confused about.  The purpose is to help you become conscious of what you are learning and to help me learn what I need to help clarify.  I will not grade you on whether I think you should have learned something but on the depth of your reflection and your use of your experiences and course readings in your reflections. Note that if you are not in class you will not be able to do this assignment. Submit to Learn@UW dropbox and verify that your upload succeeded. Due before the beginning of the following class each week.  -1 point for each day late. There are extra opportunities to do reflections if you need them.
   
4. Project Participation (51 points).  This will be the bulk of your grade.  At this point I can say that we will be doing a social history for Neighborhood House, one of Madison's oldest community organizations, as they approach their 100th anniversary in 2016.  As we meet with community members we will develop a more specific project plan and we will then collaboratively divide up the labor and assign points to it.  We will also collectively hold each other accountable for completing the necessary tasks on time and at a level of quality acceptable to our community partner. 
   • complete human subjects research protection training, https://my.gradsch.wisc.edu/citi/index.php (5 points).  If you've already done this within the last three years, good for you.  If not, complete it and send me your completion certificate by beginning of class on October 1.  -1 point for each day late. IF YOU DO NOT COMPLETE THIS REQUIREMENT YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY DATA COLLECTION OR ANALYSIS AND THUS WILL RECIEVE NO CREDIT FOR PROJECT PARTICIPATION.
   • To be determined research activities:  43 points
     • you will be part of two teams, as well as other potential activities (such as being part of the detail/information management team).  The two categories of teams are:
       1. interviewing or archiving
       2. era
     • You will receive 20 points for participation on each team and 3 floating points for service above and beyond (volunteering for an extra task and completing it).
       • Assigning points is really not a good way to do this.  I really just want you to see how important this part of the class is.  So team participation evaluation will come from your self-evaluation, team evaluation, and professor evaluation. All of these will be strength-based, asking "*what* (not "how much") did each team member contribute." I don't expect everyone to contribute to a team in quantitatively equal terms.  Some people might put in more time than others who might put in crucial skills or complete crucial tasks.  People who facilitate other people's participation are just as important as people who participate directly.  So if you worry that you are not contributing, ask your team members how you can better contribute.  And if you feel like you are doing more than others, then also ask your team members for advice. 
         
   • final reflection essay (1-3 pages, 3 points) due during the scheduled finals period.  -1 point for each day late.

   A professional skill for completing assignments:  If your strategy for succeeding in school has been about doing things at the last minute, you have learned a bad habit. You will find me relatively unsympathetic for requests for extensions if you use such a strategy.  Especially for the reflections, you will do better work if you do them shortly after class rather than waiting a whole week.  Additionally, completing assignments early helps avoid the problems created by mini-disasters

   Final grades calculation:

   A = 90-100

   B = 80-89

   C = 70-79

   D = 60-69

   F = <60
   

COURSE CALENDAR

    **Remember to print out the readings or bring your tablet/laptop to class with an electronic version as we may be discussing them.

    **I will add readings as the semester progresses.  You can always find the most up-to-date list on the web version of the syllabus.

We will not meet, but you should turn in your final reflection essay at this time.

Strengths and Weaknesses Essay

Randy Stoecker

I have been involved with community change projects for over two and a half decades. I have also studied the process of making community change for the same amount of time. And probably the first thing I have learned about myself in the process is that I really like combining the making of change with the studying of change. In fact, I think combining them makes each stronger. So my main strength is my ability to transform the research process to serve the community change process.I can easily see what knowledge questions a community is facing and possibly ways that they can answer their knowledge questions.

Of course, for me, all strengths have a kind of yin-yang weakness associated with them, and I was reminded of this recently, when I helped with a community event that included an issue development process. I had forgotten that what seems obvious to me is not obvious to others and may not even be part of how they think in the world. So I didn’t do as well in working with a community leader to communicate the issue development process and we ended up causing some confusion in the group as a consequence.It wasn’t a fatal lapse, but was still humbling.

One of the other things I have become quite good at in just the past half-decade is getting a course-based community project from start to finish in a single semester. Without fail, by the end of the semester we have produced for the community what we said we would produce. Part of the reason for that is the students, community members, and myself all become involved in planning the project and shaping it as we go.

The complementary weakness of my success at finishing projects is that I am often a lot more comfortable with the early uncertainty of such a project than nearly all of the other people involved. In fact, I have the most fun when things are uncertain and we start designing a project. It is in carrying out the project where I feel the most stressful, because I can see when we risk getting behind and that causes me to push harder than others might like. In addition, I am not the best at detail work. I really like the big picture work, and really have to push myself to remember that accomplishing the big picture requires thinking ahead to the details—making sure that I know when community meetings need to be scheduled, and scheduling them two weeks ahead, making sure there are drafts ready for review a week before the meeting, and so on.

My final strength/weakness is that I am comfortable with the critical reflection process. I am hardly ever satisfied with my own work, and actually like the process of reflecting on how to do better. Sometimes I carry that over to how I reflect on the work of others without as much sensitivity as I’d like or I hold back because I worry about being insensitive. So I am still feeling clumsy about that.