MLO 4: Research & TechnologyMLO 4.1 Students gain knowledge of appropriate research methodologies and are able to apply them in their studies.
MLO 4.2 Students use appropriate technologies in research and studies relative to Japanese language and culture. MLO 4.3 Students collect, manage, and analyze current and emerging technology-based resources to develop and produce their scholarly work. |
Courses taken at CSUMB:
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MLO 4.1
In the very beginning of JAPN403, we were taught how to use the library databases. This step was essential in beginning our research and fulfilling MLO 4.1. We learned how to get an inter-library loan, and how to use "and" and "or" to strengthen our searches. The variety of databases the library has was also very helpful because we could find what research we were looking for. One other thing that was helpful was doing our research in pairs. I believe the phrase "two heads are better than one" really defines our capstone this year. In the previous years, doing it in pairs was optional. However, for my year, it is mandatory to do it with a partner- but that is far from bad. Having a partner enables us to bounce ideas off of each other and keep each other focused on what we really want to research.
MLO 4.2
One thing in particular we did in JAPN403 was present our updated powerpoints over and over again. We presented to the class and the professor in order to get important feedback on our title, research questions, and even our layout. Because JAPN403 is Precapstone, we were able to complete half of our capstone while doing the latter half in our last semester at CSUMB. In other words, we were able to spread our capstone out into one year, where other students have to do their capstone in only one semester. This extra time allowance gave us the opportunity to fortify our topic, research questions, and survey into a concrete capstone project that we could be proud presenting as our last piece of the completion of our major. WLC400 was a class that was essential to completing our capstone project. In this class, we did research for our literature review, collaborated with each other to improve our surveys and met with our advisors weekly to discuss our progress. The weekly meetings in particular is what improved our capstone into what it is now. We received important feedback on our grammar and the difference between written and speaking form. We also learned how to present our data in a manner that was straightforward and easy-to-understand.
MLO 4.3
In JAPN403, we had several classes where we had different professors show us different ways of synthesizing our research. The most helpful was a class where an expert from the library help desk came and presented different ways we could organize our research. The first way was a program called Zotero, in which we could organize the resources we found for our literature review. The second method she taught us was called a "Synthesis Chart" (See Evidence 1), where we could put a theme on the column and an author on the row to make an organized layout of what we researched. This directly correlates to MLO 4.3 because this method allowed us to collect our data in a way where we could produce and pursue our capstone research. This method was the most helpful and my partner and I ended up using this method for our literature review.
Evidence 1: This is the synthesis table my partner and I used to organize our research.
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