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How ORC Works
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The ORC consultant will provide students, faculty,
and staff of the College of Education & Human Development with
methodological ADVICE on their research projects. Typically, the ORC consultant will provide help with:
- Developing testable research hypotheses
- Developing data collection instruments
- Planning data collection strategies
- Selecting appropriate statistical analyses
- Analyzing data with statistical software
- Interpreting data analysis result
- Writing up data analysis results
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| The philosophy of the ORC is based on the consultantship
model, which promotes the idea that the consultant does NOT simply
solve problems for a client, but rather works collaboratively with
the client to solve problems. This practice is reflected in the following
two policies, which will govern the work of the ORC: |
ORC provides consultation
by identifying alternatives and weighing expected results. ORC
consultants will NOT make decisions, judge whether the work is
good or bad, or dictate which topics to study or what analyses
to do. The consultant helps clients explore options and find the
best information upon which to base decisions. It is the client's responsibility to make any decisions regarding a study. Therefore, as a client reaches
decision points in planning a research strategy, the consultant
will remind the client to keep in touch with their research team
or committee and to involve them in the decisions.
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ORC consults by teaching
skills, not by providing direct services. For example, clients
may not have any experience with data entry, programming, or using
statistical software. The consultant will GUIDE clients through
these processes by providing resources and demonstrations. ORC will not be available to complete these tasks
for clients. Similarly, the consultant will review written text
with a client to determine whether the client has made reasonable
conclusions on the basis of the data and analytic results, but
only if the text is well written. Under no condition will the
consultant edit text for spelling or grammar errors. The consultant
will guide the client through the process so the client can do
the work for him or herself. The more skillful and independent
the client becomes, the better the consultant has served the client.
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