What do you hope to learn from this course?
I am hoping to learn additional analytical methods and combine them with the framework learned in PAF 505 to conduct my own research on a topic of local interest. In PAF 505 I wrote short papers on voter mandated spending and the state budget, and on HOT lanes versus HOV lanes. It is my hope that additional knowledge acquired this semester will conclude with a final policy paper that provides a deeper understanding of a local issue by applying the tenets of policy analysis.
What area of policy are you most interested in?
I have a variety of interests. I am most interested in public budgeting and finance, tax policy, and transportation policy. The economic downturn since 2008 has brought hardships upon state and municipal budgets, thus bringing these issues (budgeting/finance/taxes) to the forefront of the public agenda.
Have you used SPSS before? If so, how much experience do you have with it?
I have used SPSS in Dr. Peck’s PAF 501 course. The final project in the course required use of SPSS to determine correlation between our dependent variable and our independent variable. My group attempted to analyze the relationship between geo-political fragmentation and urban sprawl. I am currently enrolled in Dr. Lan’s PAF 502 course which is providing a more in-depth introduction to SPSS.
Which of the three options outlined in the syllabus for SPSS access do you plan to try to use for this course?
I will select SPSS option #1, the citrix-based version through MyASU.
