Norma Marion Alloway Library

RES 502 - Research Strategies

Two credit online course for Associated Canadian Theological Schools

Welcome to RES 502

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Introduction

INTRODUCTION TO ASSIGNMENTS

This course consists of five assignments involving two topics each. There is no final examination.

The textbook for the course is:

William B. Badke, Research Strategies: Finding your Way Through the Information Fog, 7th edition (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse.com, 2021). Earlier editions are out of date and should not be used.


    Textbook    

 

Details:

You will be completing 5 assignments. Before you go too far, please consider the following principles:

  • Process is more important than product. This course majors on the development of effective and efficient strategies for research. As such, I want to know how you got to your results even more than I want to see the results. I need to be assured that you have grasped the strategies and that you are using them well. Thus you will often be asked to provide information on the methods you used to get the results you reported. In this light, pay special attention to the information (below) about artificial intelligence use in this course.
  • You are not alone.  If you have questions, or if you're just feeling uncertain or distressed about the course, please contact me, Professor Badke: badke@twu.ca. At ACTS, we really do want you succeed, and we'll do what we can to assist you.
  • Follow directions in your assignments exactly, not because I am a hard taskmaster but because proper learning demands that you pay attention to details. Just do everything step by step, and you should be fine.
  • There are assignment templates in rich text format (they work in most word processors) available for download at the top of each assignment.  Please use them to ensure you cover everything in the assignment.  You can send me assignments in rich text or Word format.  Do not send PDFs, which are a problem to grade well.  I cannot read Apple .pages documents, which should be saved in rich text instead.
  • Be prepared for a lot of feedback from me on your assignments.  It is very important that you pay close attention to assignment feedback, because it is a large part of your learning experience in this course. That is why it is essential that you do the assignments one at a time, leaving time for me to grade each before you send the next one. My normal turnaround time for grading is 24 hours or less.
  • You must successfully complete all assignments to pass the course.
 

A note on generative AI (ChapGPT, Gemini, Copilot, etc.)

Artificial intelligence now allows us to have the machine do a lot of our writing for us. That may well be useful in some settings, but when you are a student, a large part of your research and writing experience requires you to develop skills. Those skills grow when you wrestle through your own research design, do your own searches, develop your own outlines and wrestle through your own writing. The more you turn any of these skills over to AI, the less likely it is that you will develop them for yourself. That is why we encourage minimal use of AI when you are in a learning task such as research or writing.

AI can be deceptive in its abilities. ChatGPT or Copilot, for example, regularly invent citations to articles or books that don't exist. They also invent information if they don't have needed information at hand. Thus, if you are using AI in your work, you will need to check what it produces very carefully.

AI can sometimes be helpful in generating first drafts. It is particularly useful for English as a second language students who prefer writing in their home language and translating into English. For this course, you are permitted to use a translation program. In other courses, check with your professor before using translation.

Do not use AI to search for book and article citations. It may find a few but will invent citations that do not exist in real life. AI is a dangerously inadequate search tool, and I always know when I see an AI-generated bibliography.

In any assignment you submit, you must report any use of an AI tool, explaining what you used and how you used it. Think of such AI as a co-author that must be reported. But keep AI use to a minimum while you are in the learning experience of research and writing.

For a perspective on AI, see the following presentation (open to full screen and navigate using the arrows at the bottom):

For information on AI use and plagiarism, as well a citing AI material, go to https://libguides.twu.ca/ResearchSkills/AI#s-lg-box-16839259

Assignments:

The assignments in the course are built around two selected topics, which you may choose:

  • from projects you are currently working on (e.g. research papers in other classes) - preferred option. 
  • from topics of interest to you
  • or from the list below

It is important that you clear your topics with me in advance by e-mailing: badke@twu.ca

Note that you should stay with the same two topics throughout the course unless otherwise directed.


Research Topics for use if you have not found your own – Choose two:

Abortion Debate Emerging Church
Martin Luther Euthanasia Debate
Homelessness Resurrection of Jesus
The Crusades Anti-Semitism
Confucianism Moral Development of Children
Postmodernism Family Violence
Saint Benedict Contextualization of Theology
Exodus from Egypt                     Teaching of Karl Barth
Open Theism Kingdom of God in the NT
Cognitive therapy Atonement