Survey of course curricula of graduate programs in social and administrative sciences

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Summer 1998 by Barner, Jamie C, Desikan, Radhika, Plake, Kimberly S, Purkerson, Dana L, Et al

The third section of the survey focused on the existence and structure of a graduate seminar within the program. This section identified whether a seminar was regularly scheduled, the frequency with which the seminar was held (i.e., weekly, monthly, semesterly/quarterly, other) and whether it was offered to students outside the program. In addition, students were asked to indicate the frequency of presentations by faculty within the department, presentations by faculty outside the department, presentations by graduate students, presentations by outside speakers, research methodology discussions. and journal/article discussions.

The final section, demographics, included items about the background of the students, such as the name of their institution, whether they were a part-time or full-time students, and if they were Master's or Doctoral students. If they were Master's students, they were asked to indicate if they were completing a thesis or non-thesis option. In addition, they were asked about any previous degrees held, the number of semesters or quarters completed to date, and areas of research.

Graduate Chair Survey

This survey was very similar to the graduate student survey. Again. there were four sections with questions related to: (i) core/required courses; (ii) content areas; (iii) graduate seminar; and (iv) demographics. Both the core/ required and graduate seminar sections were consistent with the graduate student survey. The content areas and demographic sections, however. were slightly different. In the content areas section, questions which asked if and where courses were taken and where knowledge was obtained in the specific content areas were excluded. Other than this exclusion. the content areas section was identical to the graduate student survey. For the demographic section, graduate chairs were asked to indicate the name of their institution. title, and the approximate number of Master's and Doctoral students in their program.

Prior to initial mailing of the questionnaires, a pretest was performed. Two Purdue faculty members not participating in the study were asked to answer and evaluate the questionnaire. In addition, thirteen Purdue social and administrative science graduate students responded to the graduate student questionnaire. From this pretest, minor modifications were made to improve the survey.

Using the AACP Roster of Graduate Programs, the study population was obtained by identifying which institutions offered graduate programs in social and administrative sciences. With the assistance of Purdue's graduate program chair and the AA CP Roster, graduate program chairs were determined. Telephone calls were made to all identified department chairs to determine the number of graduate students in their respective programs. At this time, they were also asked if they would be willing to participate in the study and disseminate the questionnaires to their graduate students. In those instances where the graduate program chair was unavailable, this information was obtained from secretaries in the respective departments. A standardized script was used during all telephone contacts.