2.0 PROCEDURES

Overview

The Overview should begin
with a brief restatement of the purpose of the capstone project.  The purpose should be followed by a brief restatement
of the problem statement.  You will then clearly and concisely describe the contents
and organization of this section using future tense.  The purpose of section 2.0 is for you to
present the project permissions,
role of the investigator, ethical considerations, project questions, procedures,
data collection, and analysis for the evidence-based project.  In this section, provide the reader with the comprehensive
details of what will occur during the execution of the project. 

Permissions

This subsection includes, but is not limited to, information about
securing approval for the project.  Include wording similar to the following: “Written permission to conduct the capstone
project was obtained from the primary supervisor within the organization, the
key gatekeepers at any site, etc. (see Appendix B for permission request letter
and permissions).”  All procedural materials and any other pertinent information should be
included in the appendices in the order in which it is presented in the text.

Note: LU does not require IRB approval because the
capstone project is site-specific, the results and solution to the problem are not
generalizable beyond the site, and the project will not be published or
disseminated beyond the site.  However,
some school systems and organizations outside of LU may have specific requirements
in order to use their site for your capstone project.  This may require IRB approval.  Finally, if you plan to independently publish
or disseminate your project, you must receive LU IRB approval before collecting any
data and you must clearly state your intention to publish in this subsection.
CITI training will be required for anyone applying to the IRB.

The Investigator’s
Role

Clearly and thoroughly
explain your relationship to the setting or site, and any bias or assumptions
you bring to the project that may influence how you collect and analyze the
data.  All researchers have biases.

Ethical Considerations

Any ethical
considerations or implications of the capstone project should be discussed.  These might include securing the collected data
(e.g., locked filing cabinets and password protection for electronic files) and
usage, influence, confidentiality (e.g., use of participant pseudonyms), and
any other potential issues that might arise and how they will be addressed.  The information contained in this capstone
project is intended to solve a specific problem at a specific location for specific
stakeholders and is not generalizable to a broader population. Therefore, this
information should not be shared or distributed outside of the site-specific
stakeholders. If you wish to share this project outside of the immediate
stakeholders, you must secure LU IRB approval.

Questions

The proposed central project question should be derived from the problem
and purpose statements.  A well-written question is feasible, clear, significant,
and ethical.  In the capstone
project, questions are pragmatic in nature. 
The central question is usually broader whereas the sub-questions are
more specific.  Begin your project with
one main central question and at least three sub-questions, understanding that
it may be necessary to revise the number and kind of questions asked as you
move into the actual data collection/analysis process.  The subsequent questions are called
sub-questions and must be numbered.  Remember
that each question will need to be addressed in the data collection, data
analysis, project design, and discussion subsections later in the capstone
project.  Be sure these questions do not
elicit simple yes/no responses. 

Project questions should be listed,
each on a separate line.  Please
use one of the following two formats.

Example One:

            Central
Question: What opportunities exist to improve information management
processes within Campbell county to maximize emergency notification deliver and
citizen protective action?

            Sub-question
1: How would administrators in an interview improve information management
processes within Campbell county, Virginia? 

            Sub-question
2: How would administrators in a focus group solve issues related to
information management processes within Campbell county, Virginia? 

            Sub-question
3: How would administrator observation improve the information management
processes within Campbell county, Virginia? 

Example Two:

            Central
Question: How do we utilize social sciences to craft notifications for more
effective dissemination to the public? 

            Sub-question
1: How would administrators in an interview solve the problem of how social
sciences are utilized to better raft notifications for dissemination to
residents within Campbell county, Virginia? 

            Sub-question
2: How would administrators in a focus group solve the problem of effective
dissemination of notifications to Campbell county, Virginia? 

            Sub-question
3: How would quantitative survey data inform the problem of effective dissemination of notifications to Campbell county,
Virginia? 

Data
Collection and Analysis

Three data collection
approaches are required for a capstone project. 
The first approach must
be in the form of interviews.  The second
and third approaches may be selected at your discretion from among the optional
approaches listed below.  Organize this subsection
with Level 2 headings according to the approach you choose.  For example, your first Level 2 heading must
be “Interviews” (see examples below).

Interviews

This is a required
approach for all capstone projects.  No
fewer than five participants will be acceptable without approval from the
administrative team of Helms School of Government Doctoral Team.

Begin by restating
sub-question one in statement form.  For
example, “The first sub-question for this project explored how administrators
in an interview might improve information management processes within Campbell
county, Virginia?”  Clearly state, for
example, “the interviews will consist of four assistant administrators and one administrator.”
 Interview data collection procedures should follow the recommendations
of established protocol in the field.  Interviews
must be conducted synchronously: face-to-face, individual phone call, or
e-conference.  All interviews must be
transcribed for data analysis.

Identify the data
collection strategy, fully define it (with citation), explain the data
collection strategy in layman’s terms (if appropriate), and justify its
appropriateness for your project.  Discuss
any logistics (when/where/how/with whom data will be collected, recorded, etc.)
and explicate which of your project questions will be answered by this data
collection strategy.  It is important to
demonstrate that your interview questions are generated from and supported by
the literature on your topic.  Your
interview questions must be included in a numbered list with an item-by-item
discussion of each question, its basis in the literature, and how it aligns
with the topic.  A minimum of 10 open-ended interview questions are required and must
be supported by the literature.  An
example of an interview question regarding efforts to identify best practices
and challenges of local government that is supported by the literature is
below.

1.     What
are some specific tasks and processes where you think technology could be
utilized more strategically to attain your primary objective?

By
explaining the purpose of each interview question in detail, you not only
establish the validity of your questions, but also establish the basis for your
discussion of findings in relation to the literature in Sections 3.0 and 4.0. The procedures should be described in chronological, step-by-step
format. 

Finish this subsection by telling
the reader how you plan to analyze the interview data.  For example, the sentence could begin:
“Interview data will be analyzed….”  Clearly
identify the data analysis procedures and provide a concise rationale for the
analysis.  Be sure that your analysis
procedures are aligned with your approach. 
For qualitative data analysis, interviews must be transcribed in order
to code and categorize information into themes. 
Tell the reader which of these tools you will use to analyze the
data.  Fully define each tool you will
use (with appropriate citations), and explain why these are appropriate choices
for the qualitative data analysis for your project.

Focus Group

Begin by restating
sub-question two in statement form.  For
example, “The second sub-question for this project explored how administrators
in a focus group might solve issues related to information management processes
within Campbell county, Virginia.” Focus groups must consist of no fewer than
five persons.  Clearly state for example,
“the focus groups will consist of 00 assistant administrators and 00 administrators.”
 Focus groups are a qualitative data
collection strategy that attempt to obtain information on a problem of practice
through an involved discussion consisting of various participants who have
gathered in one location at a specified time. 
Your focus group questions must be included in a numbered list with an
item-by-item discussion of each question, its basis in the literature, and how
it aligns with the topic.  A minimum of
10 focus group questions are
required and must be supported by the literature. An example of a focus
group question that is supported by the literature is below.

1.  
What do you view as the
primary objective of your department? Question one is designed to gain
insight from the administrators regarding their perspective of the primary
objective of their particular department. This information is necessary because
it allows researchers to assess whether 
employees at differing levels within an organization have differing
views on the organizational objectives. These differing views can prove to
create a detrimental impact on the overall efforts by the organizational
leadership in their efforts to achieve the organization’s primary objective(s).

By explaining the purpose of each focus
group question in detail, you establish the validity of your questions and the
basis for your discussion of findings in relation to the literature in Sections
3.0 and 4.0.

Finish this subsection by telling the reader
how you plan to analyze the qualitative data. 
For example, the sentence could begin: “Focus group data will be
analyzed….”  Clearly identify the data
analysis procedures and provide a concise rationale for the analysis.  Be sure that your analysis procedures are
aligned with your approach.  For
qualitative data analysis, focus group data must be transcribed in order to
code and categorize information into themes. 
Tell the reader which of these tools you will use to analyze the
data.  Fully define each tool you will
use (with appropriate citations), and explain why these are appropriate choices
for the qualitative data analysis for your project.

Survey

Begin by
restating sub-question three in statement form. 
For example, “The third sub-question for this project explored how administrators’
observations might improve the information management processes within Campbell
county, Virginia.”  Clearly state how
many surveys you will send out.  Tell the reader how you plan to collect the
quantitative data.  Develop the survey questions based on
the literature.  Survey questions
must be included in a numbered list with an item-by-item discussion of each
question, its basis in the literature, and how it aligns with the topic. Survey
questions may be open-ended or closed-ended.  Survey questions must include 3-5 demographic
questions which must be followed by a minimum of 10 survey questions that are supported by the literature. An
example survey question including the discussion is below.

1.     Data
collected from administrators’ observations are used to plan future objectives.

This question
helps to determine the manner in which assessment data are used to plan objectives.  When formative, as well as summative,
assessments are used to determine students’ understanding of concepts,
instruction can be tailored to students’ needs, increasing performance on
standardized assessments (William, 2018).

The survey may be in quantitative
format (e.g., Likert scale, semantic differential scale, forced rank scale,
etc.) or qualitative format (open-ended questions).  Discuss any logistics
(when/where/how/to whom the survey will be sent out, how the data will be
collected, recorded, etc.) and explicate how your topic will be addressed by
this data collection strategy.  The procedures should be described in chronological, step-by-step format. 

Finish this subsection by telling the reader how
you plan to analyze the quantitative or qualitative survey data.  Clearly identify the data analysis procedures
and provide a concise rationale for the analysis.  Be sure that your analysis procedures are
aligned with your approach.  For example,
the sentence could begin: “Survey data will be analyzed….”  If appropriate, use descriptive statistics
such as means and/or frequency counts.  Include
the type of figures that will be used such as trend charts, bar charts, pie
graphs, etc….

Document Analysis

Document analysis may be
applied to a variety of sources including, but not limited to legal documents,
records, meeting minutes, letters, diaries, etc.  Every effort should be made to incorporate
primary, as opposed to secondary sources. 
Identify and describe the specific documents collected.  Provide a specific rationale for why each
type of document was selected.

Observations

If conducting observations, develop and
include in the appendices your observation protocol (examples are provided in
most qualitative research texts), and be sure to address both descriptive and
reflective field notes.  Be sure to
discuss whether observations will be scheduled or unscheduled, and whether you
will be a participant or non-participant observer.  Identify frequency and duration of
observations. A minimum of five observations must be conducted.

Summary

Provide a
section summary.  The Summary includes a
succinct conclusion to the section.