Group Project: Detailed Description

You will each be assigned to a small group. All groups will be composed of members that share the same section.

Group project sites

Each group will be given a group project site in Canvas. There are two apps in your project site that are particularly important:

  1. Discussions. This app allows you to have asynchronous threaded discussions on specific topics. Outside of sections, your group should hold all discussions relevant to the project through Discussions. In addition to allowing us to see your progress, this makes it unnecessary to schedule group meetings, and ensures that all group members have the opportunity to participate.

  2. Collaborations. This app allows group members to work together on shared documents. For several of the assignments below, your group should create a single shared Word document that can be collaboratively edited.

Data analysis and slide deck

For some parts of the project, you will work together to analyze data and present your results in a slide deck. For these parts, you will use Posit Cloud, R, and RStudio. We will set up a Posit Cloud free account for each group. All work on data analysis and building your slide deck will occur through this workspace. We will spend multiple sections helping you get acquainted with this software and teaching you the basics needed to complete your project.

Submission through Canvas

Submission of all group project assignments should occur through the relevant Canvas assignment page. You can find these in the Assignments tab on Canvas.

Detailed project sequence

The project sequence is as follows:

  1. Pick a topic in political psychology that is of interest to your group.

    • Submit a 250 word description of your topic through Canvas by 1/31 at 5pm.
    • You may have some time in sections to discuss this with your group. Discussions outside of section should happen through the “Discussions” app in your group’s project site.
    • Write and edit the 250-word description in a Word document using the “Collaborations” app in your group’s project site.
    • Submit the final topic description by copying and pasting it into the Canvas submission box for this assignment.

  2. Review existing research on that topic.

    • Submit your summary through Canvas by 2/14 at 5pm.
    • Each group member should read three journal articles and write a 250 word summary of each (we will discuss acceptable journals in sections).
    • You may have some time to discuss this in sections. Discussions (if any) that occur outside of class, about which articles to read and who should read them, should take place in the “Discussions” app of your group’s project site.
    • Compile all the 250 word summaries in a single Word document in the “Collaborations” app of your group’s project site. Each member of the group should add their three summaries to this joint document.
    • To submit the final set of all summaries, copy and paste from the final collaborative Word document to the Canvas submission box of this assignment.

  3. Choose 1 of the studies you read to replicate.

    • Submit a 250-word proposal for replication through your group site on Canvas by 2/21 at 5pm.
    • The study you choose should be something you can accomplish through a survey this semester.
    • It should be something feasible for you to do, which means it cannot be too complicated in terms of research design and data science/statistics. We will dedicate 1 section to an overview of the kinds of studies that are likely to be feasible.
    • You may have some time to discuss this in sections. Outside of class, all discussions about which study to choose should occur through the “Discussions” app in your group’s project site.
    • Submit the full title, authors, date, and journal, of your chosen study, through the Canvas submission box of this assignment.

  4. Design your study in Qualtrics.

    • Submit your Qualtrics survey file (.qsf) through your Canvas group site by 3/7 at 5pm.
    • To submit the final survey, click on “Tools -> Import/Export -> Export Survey”. This should allow you to save a .qsf (Qualtrics Survey) file to your computer. Upload that .qsf file as your submission to this assignment in Canvas.
    • You will have 1 section devoted to a Qualtrics tutorial to help you with this.
    • You may have some time to work on this in sections. Outside of class, discussions about the survey should occur in the “Discussions” app of your group’s project site.
    • Make sure to test your survey enough times to ensure it works the way you intend!

  5. We (Johnston and TAs) will collect data for your survey over Spring Break.

  6. Your group will receive a data file, you will conduct the replication tests required for your study, and you will present these in professional-looking tables or figures (as needed).

    • You should submit your final code (as a Quarto document) by 4/4 at 5pm through the Canvas assignment.
    • You will work, as a team, in Posit Cloud, using R and R Studio.
    • We will devote 1 section to showing you the basics of these, and you will get 1 additional section to work together as a group and get help from your TA.

  7. You will turn your project into a slide deck to present to the class during the last week of the semester.

    • Submit your final slide deck (including both the Quarto presentation and the rendered html file) through the Canvas assignment by 4/18 at 5pm.
    • The slide deck should include an overview of the topic based on the papers you read, a more detailed description of the study you chose to replicate, an overview of the survey you designed for your replication, a description of the analyses you ran for your replication, a presentation of the results and how they compare to the original study, and a conclusion discussing what you learned about your topic from your study.
    • You will have some time in sections to work on this. You will create your slide deck using Quarto presentations in RStudio (using Posit Cloud). We will show you how to do this.

Project grades will equally weight individual and group performance.

Group performance will be evaluated based on the timeliness and quality of all all submitted portions of the project, as described above.

Individual performance will be graded on (when relevant):

  1. Quantity and quality of participation in group project activities.
  2. On-time submission and quality of work for annotated bibliography (the 3 articles you will read for your group).
  3. Preparation and quality of presentation of your portion of the slide deck.