Got 10 minutes? Brush up on your “research-readiness.”

Everyone knows it’s important to be “ready” to read and understand research reports, and to be able to evaluate research findings to use in their jobs. But how can we do a quick tone-up of our understanding about research evidence?

There’s an easy solution. Cornell Professor Rachel Dunifon (Department of Policy Analysis and Management) and Laura Colossi have prepared a set of “briefs” that take about 15 minutes each to read. They cover critically important basics of using and understanding research (geared to Cooperative Extension personnel but relevant to human service workers in any field), and are useful even to those of us who consider ourselves already “research ready.”

Here’s the site: http://www.parenting.cit.cornell.edu/research_briefs.html

Topics include:

How to Read A Research Article. This brief provides information on how to navigate through academic research articles, and also emphasizes the importance of staying up to date on the research in your chosen field of work.

Resources for Doing Web Research. This brief is designed to provide educators with the tools needed to conduct web based research effectively. Instructions on how to obtain scholarly research via the web are provided, in addition to links to longer resource guides on assessing the value of information on the web.

Designing an Effective Questionnaire. This research brief provides some basic ideas on how to best write a questionnaire and capture the information needed to assess program impact.

What’s the Difference? “Post then Pre” and “Pre then Post” This brief highlights the strengths and weaknesses of two popular evaluation designs, lists possible criteria to choose a design, as well as the importance of reducing threats to validity when conducting an evaluation.

Measuring Evaluation Results with Microsoft Excel. This brief illustrates one method for calculating mean scores among responses to evaluation instruments, and provides educators with a tutorial on how to perform basic functions using Microsoft Excel.

Happy reading – I think you will find these briefs very useful roadmaps in the sometimes confusing task of applying research findings to your work. Are there any other topics you’d like this kind of information on? If so, post a comment!