CM 590
Research Methods in Construction

Course Introduction

Welcome to Construction Management 590. This is a required course for the distance learning Master of Science in Construction Management or Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering program. The course is a study of the academic research process and includes the development of a research proposal, review of the relevant literature, selection of research methodology, collection of data, analysis of collected data, and preparation of the research report. It is intended that students taking this course will be near the completion of required coursework for their program and ready to start on the research requirement. At the completion of this course, you should have a fully-developed research proposal and initiated work on your literature review. Near the completion of the course, you will be assigned a faculty advisor for the development of your research paper and expected to register for an independent study course, either CM 600 or CEE 600, in the following quarter, to complete your paper.

Course Overview

In this course, we start with an overview of academic research, and then discuss alternative approaches to research design and the development of a research proposal. Then we will discuss development of the literature reviews and the selection of research methodologies. The final topics that we will discuss are data collection, data analysis, and report preparation. The last four weeks of the course will be devoted to individual research leading to the development of a literature review topic outline and preliminary bibliography for your research paper. There will be no examinations in this course, but you will be expected to participate in weekly discussion forums and to submit an acceptable research proposal as well as the literature review topical outline and preliminary bibliography.

Course Objectives

During this course, you will develop important information retrieval, technical reading, and critical thinking skills. By the end of this course you will be able to

• describe the types of academic research;
• describe the research process;
• design a research methodology;
• develop a research proposal;
• prepare a thorough, well-documented literature review;
• develop data collection instruments; and
• prepare a research report.

The Online Environment

Your online course offers several advantages to the traditional classroom, including the comprehensive Online Student Handbook, the ability to communicate electronically with students and with your instructor, and links to a rich array of online resources.

Online Student Handbook

This handbook answers questions about your online learning course, such as how to purchase your text, schedule an exam, obtain a transcript, and get technical help if you need it. The handbook also provides additional resources, such as how to order books or journals from the library and how to study for an online course.

Communication with Your Instructor and Student Peers

• Online Discussion Forums, designed by the University of Washington award winning Catalyst team, allow you to communicate with other currently enrolled students and with your instructor. We encourage you to use the forum to exchange ideas, resources, and comments about your course work with other students in this course. This unstructured forum is monitored by your instructor.
• You can use e-mail to ask me a question or preferably post your question on the forum. I will reply on the same forum.

About this Course

This course includes seven lessons and seven assignments—all seven have a two-fold discussion forum component, and four (3,4, 5, and 7) have a written component. You will also find a course calendar, key terms in most lessons, a research paper archive, discussion forums for each week, and an assignment turn-in area.

Course Calendar

A course calendar linked from your syllabus provides due dates for all required work and links, lesson by lesson, to all the discussion forums and the assignment turn-in area. You can print this file as a handy reference.

Key Terms

Most lessons include terms that are important to the concepts you will learn in the lesson and are intended to serve as guides to your study; these terms are boldfaced and italicized where they appear in the text, and are also shown in a sidebar. You will not be held responsible for key term definitions per se, but you will be expected to use the terms in your written work and presentation material whenever possible. You will find the terms defined either in the lesson commentary, the assigned readings, or both.

Research Paper Archive

You will find examples of research papers submitted by previous students. These examples should give you a better idea of what you need in order to develop a research paper. As papers become available, your instructor will add them to the archive list.

Discussion Forums

An online discussion forum will be conducted each week to discuss questions posed for each lesson and to address any of your questions. You are expected to provide a "response" posting to each of the questions posed in the lesson by 6:00 p.m. each Friday.

Once all the student responses have been posted, you are expected to review the responses of all other students and provide a "comment" posting, discussing at least one other student's response by 8:00 a.m. each Monday.

Assignment Turn-in Area

You will use the same online turn-in area for all your written assignment submissions. Links are provided on the Course Calendar, but please see the About Your Instructor page for assignment submission details.

About the Lessons

The course is organized into seven lessons that are to be completed in ten weeks. The time allocated for each lesson is Monday through Sunday.

• Lesson One: Introduction to Academic Research (1 week)—This lesson provides an overview of academic research and the primary research processes.
• Lesson Two: Research Design and Proposal Development (1 week)—This lesson examines the major issues to be considered when selecting a research topic and developing a research proposal.
• Lesson Three: Literature Review (1 week)—This lesson examines the development of a review of the relevant literature that relates to the selected research topic.
• Lesson Four: Research Methodologies/Data Collection (1 week)—This lesson examines alternative methodologies for data collection that are an essential part of the research process.
• Lesson Five:Data Analysis (1 week)—This lesson examines alternative techniques for analyzing the collected data.
• Lesson Six: Report Preparation (1 week)—This lesson examines the process for developing the final research report.
• Lesson Seven: Literature Review Development (4 weeks)—In this lesson, students conduct research and develop a topic outline for their literature review and a preliminary bibliography of references.

About the Assignments

All the assignments have a two-fold discussion forum component where you are expected to respond to questions and then to comment on other students' responses. Selected lessons contain a written assignment that is to be submitted to the instructor by 8:00 a.m. on the due date, which is the Monday following the last day of the lesson.

How Do I Submit Assignments?

• Please submit written assignments according to the instructions found on the About Your Instructor page on the course syllabus. Please note your instructor's policy on late assignments.
• You must make at least one posting to the week's discussion forum on or before the due date, or you will receive a grade of zero for that week's posting.

Table i.1—Task Deliverables.

Week	Tasks due by the end of the week
Week 1	Assignment 1 Discussion Forum "response" posting by 6:00 p.m. Friday; "comment" posting by 8:00 a.m. the following Monday. No written assignment.
Week 2	Assignment 2 Discussion Forum "response" posting by 6:00 p.m. Friday; "comment" posting by 8:00 a.m. the following Monday. No written assignment.
Week 3	Assignment 3 Discussion Forum "response" posting by 6:00 p.m. Friday; "comment" posting by 8:00 a.m. the following Monday. Written Assignment 3 due by 8:00 a.m. on Monday.
Week 4	Assignment 4 Discussion Forum "response" posting by 6:00 p.m. Friday; "comment" posting by 8:00 a.m. the following Monday. Written Assignment 4 due by 8:00 a.m. on Monday.
Week 5	Assignment 5 Discussion Forum "response" posting by 6:00 p.m. Friday; "comment" posting by 8:00 a.m. the following Monday. Written Assignment 5 due by 8:00 a.m. on Monday.
Week 6	Assignment 6 Discussion Forum "response" posting by 6:00 p.m. Friday; "comment" posting by 8:00 a.m. the following Monday. No written assignment.
Week 7	Assignment 7 Discussion Forum (Part I) "response" posting by 6:00 p.m. Friday; "comment" posting by 8:00 a.m. the following Monday. Written Assignment 7 is due Week 10.
Week 8	Assignment 7 Discussion Forum (Part II)" response" posting by 6:00 p.m. Friday; "comment" posting by 8:00 a.m. the following Monday. No written assignment.
Week 9	Assignment 7 Discussion Forum (Part III) "response" posting by 6:00 p.m. Friday; "comment" posting by 8:00 a.m. the following Monday. No written assignment.
Week 10	Written Assignment 7 by 8:00 a.m. Monday: topic outline for your literature review and a preliminary bibliography of references.

About Grading

Each assignment submission will be graded on a percentage basis, with 100% the maximum grade. Individual grades will be weighted, and final percentage grades will be computed on the following basis:

Table i.2—Assignment Submissions and Descriptions.

Assignment Submission	Description
Discussion Forums	Individual grades on each discussion forum will be averaged and count as 40% of the final percentage grade.
Research Proposal	The grade on the research proposal will count as 25% of the final percentage grade.
Topical Outline of Literature Review	The grade on the topical outline of the literature review will count as 20% of the final percentage grade.
Preliminary Bibliography	The grade on the preliminary bibliography will count as 15% of the final percentage grade.

The final course grade will be determined by converting the final percentage grade to one on a 4.0 basis using the following conversion scale:

Table i.3—Grade Conversion.

Grade		Percentage
A	4.0-3.9	100-97.5
A-	3.8-3.5	97.4-92.5
B+	3.4-3.2	97.4-92.5
B	3.1-2.9	88.6-85.0
B-	2.8-2.5	84.9-80.0
C+	2.4-2.2	79.9-76.2
C	2.1-1.9	76.1-72.5
C-	1.8-1.5	72.4-67.5
D+	1.4-1.2	67.4-63.7
D	1.1-0.9	63.6-60.0
D-	0.8-0.7	59.9-57.5
F	0	57.4 and below

Please note that a grade of 2.7 or above must be earned if the course is to count toward a Master of Science degree.

About the Developer

John E. Schaufelberger, Ph. D., PE

Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Construction Management

Schaufelberger is a full-time faculty member who teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses. Prior to joining the University of Washington faculty in 1994, he served 30 years as a military officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers managing major construction projects throughout the United States and in several foreign countries. As a government contracting officer, he managed over $2 billion in design and construction contracts including acquisition planning, contractor selection, and contract administration. His major research activities involve project delivery methods and project management techniques. This course was developed to share his contracting experiences and research results. Schaufelberger received a B. S. in electrical engineering from the University of Idaho and a M. S. and Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Illinois. His hobbies are hiking, gardening, and exploring historical sites.

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