Online Research Tutorials, Guidelines and Videos

The tutorials and streaming videos listed below have been created both to support learning and skill mastery in specific courses and also to serve as a way of review as students go on to higher-level courses where these concepts and skills are taken for granted. The streaming slideshows and videos require RealPlayer, which is available for free from RealNetworks (look for the unobtrusive link to Free RealOne Player in the upper right-hand corner of the page). "Screen Movies" require Windows Media Player 9 (only sound will play on earlier versions). All will play best on a high-speed connection. If you don't have cable or DSL, we recommend using the campus labs (but bring your own headphones). Students and faculty anywhere are welcome to use these resources, provided that proper attribution is given and they are not used for commercial purposes.

Streaming Screen Movies and Videos

Online Tour of Our Departmental Website (Professor Robert Wood)
This streaming "screen movie" provides a tour of our departmental website,
with special attention to its web-enhanced curriculum.
Requires Windows Media Player 9 or higher (8 minutes)

"Down Germantown Avenue: An Introduction to Elijah Anderson's Code of the Street"
This film was made in 2005 by two Rutgers-Camden students, James Flatley and Etienne Jackson,
in association with Professor Robert Wood, to serve as an instructional aid for teaching and reading Anderson's widely-read book. Further details available at the film website.
Requires RealPlayer (13 minutes)

Visual Research Materials for Cati Coe's Dilemmas of Culture in African Schools
Two Powerpoints and three streaming videos to illustrate themes in Dr. Coe's book.
Requires RealPlayer

Turning an Event Into Fieldnotes: A Ghanaian Example (Professor Cati Coe)
In this streaming video, Dr. Coe introduces and narrates a video excerpt from her fieldwork in Ghana. The video shows a student cultural performance in a competition between schools, and Dr. Coe's commentary is designed to instruct students about the kinds of things they should look for when doing ethnographic research.
Requires RealPlayer (25 minutes)

Making Causal Arguments: The Three Criteria of Causation (Professor Wood)
This streaming video slideshow explores the criteria involved in making a causal argument,
with special attention to the problem of spurious correlations
Requires RealPlayer (10 minutes)

Variables in Social Science Research (Professor Jon'a Meyer)
This RealPresenter streaming slide show introduces independent, dependent, intervening and moderating variables.
Note: Occasionally does not play properly due to server software conflict; try again later if you run into a problem
Requires RealPlayer (16 minutes)

Testing a Hypothesis Using MicroCase (Professor Wood)
This streaming "screen movie" reviews the proper format of hypotheses and the importance of operationalization, and then turns to the steps involved in running a cross-tabululation and interpreting the results to test a hypothesis
Requires Windows Media Player 9 or higher (7 minutes)

Testing a Hypothesis Part 2: Introducing a Control Variable (Professor Wood)
This streaming "screen movie" picks up from the previous one to walk students through the process of introducing a control variable and interpreting the results
Requires Windows Media Player 9 or higher (3 1/2 minutes)

Taking a Virtual Tour (Professor Wood)
This streaming "screen movie" provides a tutorial for taking one of the numerous "virtual tours" which Professor Wood has created and which are listed at the department's virtual tour page
Available for RealPlayer and in Flash Format (5 1/2 minutes)

Online Tutorial for Social Stratification and Sociological Theory MicroCase Exercises (Prof. Wood)
Part 1 (3 1/2 minutes) Part 2 (6 1/2 minutes)
A quick review of hypothesis testing using MicroCase CP cross-tabulations and scatterplots
Requires Windows Media Player 9 or higher

Topical Video Clips (Professor Wood)
A series of short instructional video clips from Seeing Sociology, for which Prof. Wood
was a consultant, available as links for students from his Introduction to Sociology online syllabus
Samurai Baseball: The Power of Culture
Groupthink and the Challenger Disaster
Resocialization in MIlitary Training
Sexual Harassment as a Stigma Contest
Gay Marriage
The Women's Movement in Historical Perspective
Require RealPlayer

Text-Based Tutorials and Guidelines

Taking Fieldnotes (Professor Cati Coe)
The guidelines for ethnographic fieldwork and note-taking in this assignment provide
a useful resource for both students and other faculty. Dr. Coe also has a useful
webpage on Transcribing Conversations

Research Methods Tutorial (Professor Jon'a Meyer)
This online tutorial reviews basic concepts and techniques in social sceience methods