CMSC 634: Empirical Research Methods for Computer Science

Essentials Announcements Syllabus and Assignments Books, Policies and other Administrivia Course Project

Essential Course Info

Instructor	Vibha Sazawal
Time	Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 - 1:45 PM
Place	CSIC 2118
Office Hours	Tuesday and Thursdays, 2-3 PM. Also by appointment. 4113 avw.
Email	vibha at cs (include [634] in your subject line)

Announcements

Bring 5 copies of your project paper draft to class on December 5th. I encourage you to revise the draft from WIP #2 so you can get feedback on the new text!
On November 24th, I will provide pizza. Please consider using the time to do PILOT studies (or even your actual study, if it's appropriate). Pilot studies are so important. It is crucial to fix all the problems in your study before you start with real participants.
Nov 17th: Project presentations on November 19th should be presented as if it is your own work. That way it provides the best practice for your project presentation.
Oct 28th: Big project changes: No more WIP 3, and deadline extended to December 18th

Tentative Syllabus and Assignments

Week	Topic	Reading and Assignments
Sep 1st, 3rd	Intro, scientific method.	Read Ch 1, 2 of DPE.
Sep 8th, 10th	Experimentation and more experimentation.	Read Chapters 4, 7-10 of DPE. Form project groups, meet with project clients. Prepare project milestone proposal, due Sep 17th. Assignment 1 out, due Sep 15th.
Sep 15th, 17th	Ethics, IRB. Paper writing.	Read Chapter 6 of DPE. Read handout on paper writing, example IRB application, example exempt IRB application. IRB application for your project due on September 29th. If relevant to your project, read DPE pgs. 212-226 on survey research.
Sep 22nd, Sep 24th.	Quantitative Data Analysis (I).	Read Chapter 12, DPE. Project Milestone 1, due October 6th.
Sep 29th, Oct 1st.	Quantitative Data Analysis (II).	Read Kitchenham et al., Vicente and Torenvliet.
Oct 6th, 8th.	Quantitative Analysis III: t-tests, one-way ANOVA.	Read MCP.
Oct 13th, 15th.	Quantitative Analysis IV: Two-way ANOVA, Correlation, Non-parametric tests.	Assignment 2 out, due start of class on October 20th. Project Milestone 2 due October 27th.
Oct 20, 22nd.	Measuring Computer Performance, More on proportions and binomial distribution, Dyninst, Dyninst example	Assignment 3 out, due November 5th.
Oct 27th, 29th.	No class (Vibha at OOPSLA).
Nov 3rd, Nov 5th.	Measuring Computer Performance II. Issues in Java Performance Measurement.	Reading Blackburn et al. and Georges et al.
Nov 10th, 12th.	Ethnography, Contextual Inquiry, Narrative Interviewing.	Read Tang and Carpendale, Chong and Hurlbutt, and Ko.
Nov 17th, 19th.	Qualitative Data Analysis, 15 minute talks on qualitative research in class. Feedback on talks. Homework 3 handed back -- statistics and grading rubric	Read Lin et al., Cherubini et al., Dabbish et al., and Teevan et al. Read project presentation guidelines and grading rubric.
Nov 24th, 26th.	November 24th class time and location can be used for user studies if interested. Thanksgiving, no class.
Dec 1st, Dec 3rd.	Qualitative Data Analysis II, Writing clinic.	Bring 5 copies of your current paper draft to class on December 3rd. Project report due December 18th.
Dec 8th, Dec 10th.	Project Presentations.	Final exam handed out and due December 18th at 3:30 PM.