W1D1
Identifying a Data Set and Framing Research Questions (Due Day 5)

In preparation for this discussion,

Read the following article to develop your understanding of a secondary data set: Hofferth, S.L. (2005). Secondary Data Analysis in Family Research. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67(4), 891-907.
Take the video tour of a portal containing secondary data sets.
Once you are familiar with how to search for a data set inside a portal of websites and how to navigate the contents of a data set, begin to explore the data sets found in this curation. The curation contains different portals housing websites containing secondary data sets. Scroll down and look at the titles and summary of the contents in the different portals. Click on the portal(s) of interest. Look for the links to data sets or use the search command. If you are having difficulties, go back and watch the video tour listed in item #3 at the following website: The Use of Secondary Data for Doctoral Research | Learnist.
Pick one of the data sets from a portal/website (Note: projects that employ data generated outside the approved list of portals run the risk of not meeting the requirements of the assignment. To recap, you will not start off with a topic. Rather, you will explore data sets from the list of portals provided. From the websites inside the portal, identify a data set of interest to you. The data set you identify should relate to your degree program and relate to a research topic you are reasonably comfortable with. Explore the data contained in the data set. Think about relationships between the data that could serve as the basis for a research study (correlations, differences, causality). Formulate three research questions pertaining to the data selected.
By Day 5, post the following:

a link to the portal you selected;
a link to the database from the portal;
a description of the potential topic;
an explanation of your interest in this topic;
a first draft of your research questions