Innovative Small Group Courses to Fast-Track Your Work
Do you need to make progress now on your paper, thesis, or dissertation?
Do you want to gain specific reading, writing, or research skills to make writing and research easier?
Are you ready to turn your academic work into a real-world contribution to boost your career and professional impact?
Sign up for one of our interactive, affordable small group classes!
In just 2-3 hours, you will gain vital insights, learn and apply powerful tools and techniques, and get real-time expert feedback on your work. Our small group setting of 6-8 participants enhances your learning by allowing you to gain input from our students and form a community within and beyond the course.
Prefer a one-on-one approach to fast-tracking your work? Consider our boot camps!
General Classes
Working effectively with your advisor, chair, and/or committee (2 hours)
Successfully completing your thesis or dissertation requires that you work well with your advisor/chair and second reader/committee. But between their busy schedules and expectations and your own, that can be very tricky. This workshop presents the characteristic types of faculty you tend to encounter, describes how you can work effectively with each type, and offers you tools and techniques for paving your own path to success
Editing master class (2 hours)
The first draft of your article, thesis, or dissertation is never the final draft. In fact, editing can be a never-ending task. This class teaches you techniques for transforming your work line by line into the clearest, most powerful version of your writing possible.
APA boot camp (2 hours)
APA format can seem like a mystifying collection of arbitrary rules. While most degree programs require a governing body or sanctioned editor to review and approve your APA format, this workshop guides you through the steps for assuring your work is as APA-friendly as possible, allowing you to save time and money during the final approval process.
Starting Your Research (Introduction or Chapter 1)
Finding a MOVIE research topic (3 hours)
A thesis or dissertation requires a profound amount of your time, talent, and energy. To make the most of your investment, make sure you select a MOVIE topic--one that is personally Meaningful, Occupationally relevant (whether for your current or desired career), socially Valuable, Innovative, and profoundly Energizing). This workshop guides you through our process of finding your unique MOVIE topic.
Writing a well-constructed introduction to your study (3 hours)
Writing an effective introduction is critical for engaging and orienting readers to your study, winning over stakeholders, attracting funding, and more. Yet, most students don't know what this section should include or how to write it. This workshop provides a template and exercises for helping you write a well-constructed study introduction.
Gathering and Understanding Past Research (Literature Review or Chapter 2)
Planning the literature review (3 hours)
Many students find the literature review one of the most challenging parts of research. Moving more easily through this stage of research begins with figuring out which areas and topics of literature you need to cover and which areas and topics you can safely exclude. This workshop provides you with tools and techniques for planning your own literature review, which can be adapted for course papers, theses, dissertations, and articles.
Finding relevant literature (3 hours)
Most students don't know how to use the university library databases at their fingertips to find the research they need. Others don't know which resources to include in their study. This workshop provides powerful techniques to help you navigate popular library databases to quickly find the resources you need to write your paper, article, or literature review.
Evaluating literary sources (3 hours)
Sources are not created equal. Learn the differences, virtues, and drawbacks of scholarly research, conference presentations, books, websites, and more. You also will gain tools for evaluating the sources you gather and writing about these strengths and weaknesses in your literature review.
Literature review strategies (3 hours)
From your school days, you may have learned a certain way of writing research papers. If you still remember those strategies, they may or may not work for you now when you are juggling the many demands of your personal, professional, and academic life. Learn four innovative strategies for efficiently reading, thinking, and writing about research.
Reading scholarly research for understanding (3 hours)
Even when students find relevant literature, reading and understanding it is another significant challenge. This study guides you through the process of deciphering and understanding scholarly literature as well as three other types of resources.
Power note taking (3 hours)
Although you may have gathered research and may have even read and understood it, deciding what to include from the research in your literature review or article is the next challenge. This workshop teaches our method for making sense of the research you have gathered and extracting the material you need to write about it.
Paraphrasing research (3 hours)
One of the main challenges I hear from students doing literature reviews is "I can't write it any better than the original article did!" This workshop teaches you how to integrate and paraphrase material from multiple sources and formulate your own original writing about those sources.
Planning What You Will Do (Methods or Chapter 3)
Selecting a research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods designs (3 hours)
Given the many kinds of research designs available (e.g., correlational, experimental, grounded theory, phenomenology, ethnography, case study), it is difficult to understand which type would be best for your study. This workshop provides an overview of popular research designs and helps you consider and evaluate what would be best for your study.
Sampling and participant procedures (3 hours)
The number of sampling approaches, especially in qualitative or mixed methods research, can be dizzying. This workshop orients you to the many choices and approaches used when recruiting participants and guides you through the process of designing appropriate approaches for your study.
Finding and designing data collection tools (3 hours)
Producing sound research results relies on effective data collection instruments (e.g., surveys, interviews, observation). This workshop will guide you through the process of considering what types of data collection instruments to use in your study, finding existing instruments to use or model in your study, and enhancing the validity of the instrument.
Making Sense of Your Data (Results or Chapter 4)
Analyzing interview and other qualitative data (3 hours)
Various analysis approaches are used to examine qualitative data, depending upon the overall research design, sample, and nature and extent of the data. This workshop provides an overview of the considerations involved when analyzing data and how to select the appropriate approach for you.
Analyzing quantitative data (3 hours)
Quantitative analysis approaches vary based on your research design, sample, and nature and extent of the data. This workshop provides an overview of the considerations involved when analyzing data and how to select the appropriate approach for you.
Creating and writing about data tables (3 hours)
Although you may have collected and even analyzed your data, students often are still unsure how to turn the results into tables and figures that make sense to readers. This workshop provides you with a step by step process for creating and writing about tables and figures that make your results understandable.
Completing Your Research (Discussion or Chapter 5)
Crafting powerful conclusions (3 hours)
The purpose of research is to create new knowledge, which is presented in the form of conclusions in your thesis or dissertation. This workshop guides you through the process of generating powerful conclusions.
Offering evidence-based recommendations (3 hours)
After conducting your study, analyzing your data, and outlining the new knowledge your study has produced, it is important to translate this knowledge into insightful practical recommendations that can benefit your profession, your field, and the world. This workshop provides you with a process for identifying and writing about the practical recommendations you can draw from your original research.
Identifying limitations and delimitations (3 hours)
Every study has limitations that affect the validity of its findings. This workshop provides an overview of limitations and delimitations (along with how these differ), steps for evaluating your own and other studies, and a process for writing about the limitations in your study.
Suggestions for research (3 hours)
One of the final steps you must do as a researcher is pass the baton to those researchers who may wish to continue what you began. This workshop provides you with a process for thinking through your research, identifying those suggestions for future research, and effectively writing about those suggestions.
Beyond the Degree
Publications & presentations beyond the thesis or dissertation (3 hours)
If you have conducted research based on a MOVIE topic, it is important to consider making your mark through publications and presentations beyond your thesis or dissertation. This workshop will guide you through the process of creating a customized and effective publication strategy based on the research and writing you produced during your degree program.
Turning your research into interventions and offerings (3 hours)
A central part of most theses and dissertations is identifying the practical implications of your research. As practitioner-scholars, you are the most likely figure to help bring these recommendations to fruition. This workshop will guide you through the process of creating actionable steps to make sure your the valuable work you created in your thesis or dissertation makes a difference in the world.
Conducting research after the thesis or dissertation (3 hours)
Conducting research and creating valuable contributions in your areas of interest don't have to stop now that you have earned your degree. Learn about the options for doing more research, whether by yourself or with other collaborators. You also will outline an actionable personalized research strategy to execute after the course.