Purpose: ?Summarize and appraise an article for bias and validity in a collaborative environment. Assessment: ?

Purpose:  Summarize and appraise an article for bias and validity in a collaborative environment.

Assessment:  The DBs are worth 35 points. It will be graded based quality of 3 posts made on 3 different days. Please see the grading rubric embedded below for complete criteria.

Instructions: Carefully read, summarize, and appraise your group's assigned article.  The discussion board for this week should cover the following concepts in order to have a complete draft by the end of the week. Apply the concepts discussed in the lecture and the readings.  As you provide input to your peers, be sure to state a rationale for your claims.

Appraise and debate the sampling methods and determine the quality of the sampling procedures in reducing bias. Consider the following questions:

• Was the sampling method and inclusion/exclusion criteria adequate to reduce sampling bias?
• Are the sample characteristics representative of the target population?
• Was the sample size adequate?
• Was there a decrease in sample size?  If so, did the researchers identify decreases early and       attempt to reduce the impact?  Was a decrease, if any, adequately explained by the researchers?