Assignment # 1

Quantitative Research: Article Summary (14% of the grade)

This assignment is aimed at giving students an opportunity to select and analyze a real quantitative (qualitative is written in the classroom) research study and explain how it may or may not be able to help improve an aspect of health care delivery. This will be a 2 - 4 page paper that meets the general writing guidelines which are outlined in the syllabus.

This assignment should be carried out as follows:

Step #1: Study selection - Select the article that most interests you.

1. A Randomized Trial of Intensive versus Standard Blood-Pressure Control (Article1)
2. Cancer incidence and mortality worldwide: Sources, methods and major patterns in GLOBOCAN 2012 (Article2)
3. The Quality of Surgical and Pneumonia Care in Minority-Serving and Racially Integrated Hospitals (Article3)

Step #2: Summary: Write a 2 - 3 page summary and analysis of the key aspects of the article you selected. In this summary you should cover the following items in the article:

• Describethe research hypothesis in the article
• Describe the type of quantitative research design selectedand why this design was chosen by the author(s), i.e. Descriptive, Correlational,Causal-comparative/quasi-experimental research or Experimental research. The following link provides a quick review of the differenceshttp://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/researchcourse/develop_quantitative.html
• Variables tested
• Research design
• Data Analysis
• Results
• Conclusions

Grading Rubric for written Assignment #1

Critical Thinking Skills: Clearly presents thoughts and concepts.

40%

Course Content: Uses, applies, and demonstrates understanding of course materials, readings, conferences, and instructor-provided content. Visual and graphic images capture and display understanding of the concepts

30%

Assignment Instructions: Responds to assignment instructions, including all essential elements of the project description

15%

Writing Quality: Writes clearly, concisely, and with few errors. APA format is followed. Citations are used. Clearly presents material graphically. Easy to understand

Assignment #2 - Team Project (20% of the grade)

In this assignment students will go through the steps to set up a quantitative research study.The Instructor will divide the class into groups to complete the assignment.Each group should submit 1 report. It includes a peer evaluation.

Step #1: Topic selection:In The "Topic Selection - Assignment Drop Box In Weekly Module 4 and in the Assignment Folder), add your topic and the name of the data set you plan to use for your quantitative research assignment for Instructor approval.Students are required to use one of the data sets in Course Content (in Week 6).

Step #2: Part 1: Quantitative data analysis design

Using the topic approved by the Instructor, class teams should:

a.)Select a topic (as a team) and state the hypothesis

b.)Conduct a literature review on the selected topic and summarize at least five scholarly sources

c.)Select one of the data sets in Week 6 your team plans to use to conduct a statistical analysis

d)Identify relevant variables (two or more) and justify your choices

e)Work as a team to choose the statistical method you plan to use for your analysis (Refer to content in week 3 on Biostatistics for information on various statistical methods you can choose from)

f)Identify statistical software your team will use to run your statistical analysis focusing on Rstudio as the main software (i.e., Rstudio, EXCE EXCEL; SPSS)

Step # 3: Analyze the data, state your conclusions and support them

a) students should identify relevant variables and justify the choices

b) analyze the data, state your conclusions and support them