Independent Research in Education (ED495a)

One of the benefits of doing an Independent Research Study is setting your own schedule.  BUT one of the most difficult things about doing an Independent Research Study is setting your own schedule.  Here are some guidelines to help you:

1. Your project must be completed within the 6-week course cycle in which you are enrolled.  Use the end date as your deadline for the final draft of your project. Plug your start date into the first day of your schedule.
2. Next, add your two conference dates.  (These are the dates you and your Research Advisor agreed upon before you were enrolled in the course.  They may not be changed except in very extreme circumstances.)
3. Your conference dates will roughly divide your schedule into two phases: 
• From the first conference to the second is the research phase.  During this time, you will locate and read as many articles related to your topic as you can.  Aim for 10 to 15 articles total.  Try to map out specific reading and research goals on your schedule.
• From the second conference to the deadline is your writing phase.  During this time, you will write and revise your paper.  Plan to have multiple drafts and be sure to have them proofread before you finally submit them.  It is possible that your Research Advisor may ask you at your second conference to focus your research and gather some more information during the writing phase.  You will need to be flexible, but still meet your final deadline.
4. At your first conference, your Research Advisor may set up other checkpoints and deadlines with you.  Be sure to place these on your schedule as well.  Add in any specific goals and activities that will enable you to meet those deadlines as well.

A sample timeline has been put together below to help illustrate.  Notice that this student's schedule starts on a Thursday and ends on a Wednesday.  Also, you can see how she customized the schedule to meet her needs - she decided not to work on Sundays and has built the schedule on 6 days of work per week.  Additionally, her Research Advisor has required two written progress reports, four phone check-ins, and three drafts of the paper before the final one is submitted, so those due dates are all included as well. She used color-coding to keep track of due dates, conferences and phone calls with her Research Advisor, and the intermediate goals she set for herself that will help her meet the due dates.

Your schedule or timeline may look very different from this and that is OK.  As long as your Research Advisor has approved it and you are able to use it to stay on track with your project, that's all that matters.