Random Drug Testing for Public Employees

“Most public issues are very complex problems involving many different elements and factors” (Erping et al., 2014). Thus, your paper focuses on your capacity to research and discuss a public issue. In your public issue paper, you must address: “The necessity of randomly drug testing public employees”

The paper should be 10 or more pages, double spaced, and provide the pros and cons of the issue, reasons supporting your conclusion, and examples from your experience illuminating your position. Organization and clarity of writing are vital in the grading of this assignment.

 Public Sector Project Management

Class title is: Public Sector Project Management – This course guides students through fundamental project management concepts and behavioral skills needed to successfully launch, lead, and realize benefits from projects in public and nonprofit organizations. Successful project managers skillfully manage their resources, schedules, risks, and scope to produce a desired outcome. Students will learn how to initiate, implement and close on a project. The primary text by the Project Management Institute is considered the standard for Project Management and will give students the basics on project management in the public sector. Supplemental readings will reinforce the core principles in effective project management. In this course, students explore project management from a generalist perspective through the textbook, selected readings, and case studies. Special attention is given to critical success factors required to overcome resistance to change. We will review causes of project failure and how to mitigate risks through proper planning in the early phases of a new endeavor.

Assignment:

Based on course content, answer the following questions and clearly label answers to each. At least four sentences for each question will earn full credit.

1. What is Project Management and give examples.

2. Discuss an example of a project worth working on this semester for the PMP Final Project.

Please look at what your group members post for #2 because this will help your group decide on what project to select for the semester, which will be the next group discussion the following week.

Reasons for Supporting the Reinstatement of The Fairness Doctrine

For 3 points, write up to 300 words to justify the case for one side of the following debate

Pro: Ever since the Fairness Doctrine was repealed in 1987 the coverage of politics on television has seriously deteriorated. Cable TV news has become nothing but an outlet for outrageous slanted opinions; serious discussion of the issues has been largely shunted to the side. For the sake of the public interest, the Fairness Doctrine should be reinstated, thereby forcing TV channels to present opposing views on public policy issues. Such a change would greatly reduce political polarization and bring America together again.

Con: The Fairness Doctrine was eliminated in 1987 because the expansion of the number of channels made it impossible for a single network to silence a particular point of view. People can now easily flip through multiple channels to get alternative points of view. To force each channel to present opposing points of view would involve excessive regulation of free speech in the 21st century. We cannot expect government regulation of the media to solve the problems of political polarization that we currently face.

For 2 more points, write a response of up to 150 words to something posted on the other side of the issue

Discussion Post Expectation:

– Clearly state which side of the debate you are on.

– Provide at least 3 arguments for why you chose the respective side.

– If you have difficulty in coming up with 3 arguments, provide additional examples (with appropriate references/citations) that illustrate your understanding of the debate topic and support your view on the debate.

– Stick to the debate at hand. While background to the issue is important, keep it concise and focus on arguing why you chose the respective side.

Response Post Expectation:

– Respond to someone who has the opposite stand relative to your view.

– Provide at least 2 counter arguments referencing the arguments made by the person you are responding to. Don’t just say that you do not agree with their point of view. Support your disagreement with appropriate counter arguments (at least 2)

– If you have difficulty in coming up with 2 counter-arguments, provide additional examples (with appropriate references/citations) that counter the view of the person you are responding to.

 

Impact of Social Media on Democracy Prospectus

This is where you will submit your official prospectus for this class. Please follow the directions below:

Your prospectus must be at least 10 pages long (10 pages of full writing, NOT including works-cited/bibliography/reference pages, an optional appendix, or any blank space/page). It should be double-spaced, twelve point font, 1-inch margins. It must contain all of the following REQUIRED SECTIONS(note: each section should be clearly labeled wherever the section begins):

• Introduction (Background of Project and Intro to Research Question)
  • Describe in detail the background of the issue you’re examining, how you got interested in it, and your research question
• Literature Review
  • Your full, finalized mini lit review of the 5 sources (remember to do the full summary, critique, and application of each of your 5 sources to your research as you had previously done for your mini lit review before)
• Research Proposal Section: IMPACT ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY
  • Describe in detail your research question, your theory, your hypothesis and null hypothesis, the dependent variable (Y), the independent variable (X) of interest, and what confounding variables (Z’s) you will control for (and don’t forget to describe why you chose those particular set of confounding Z’s and what inspired you to come up with those confounding Z’s)
• Methodology Section (the majority of your prospectus)
  
  • This is where you will describe your whole methodology (your entire research plan) in vivid detail. The methodology section will make up the bulk of your prospectus. You will be graded on how extensive this section is, how creative you are in coming up with a very detailed plan that explains every step of your research process, and how much you incorporate and apply everything that you learned from class in this section. This section should address the following in vivid detail:
    
    • Are you going to be using experimental design or observational design or both, and if so, why are you choosing that particular research design? Why do you think that the particular research design you’ve chosen is appropriate/suitable for your specific research question, theory, and hypothesis?
    • Will you be using quantitative methods or qualitative methods or both (mixed methods), and if so, why are you choosing that particular research method? Why do you think that the particular research method you’ve chosen is appropriate/suitable for your specific research question, theory, and hypothesis?
    • Describe in detail where you will get your data
      • Will it be from existing datasets, records, transcripts, news articles, etc.? If so, describe from where you will get them, how you will get them, why you chose these particular datasets, and how these datasets are relevant to your research question, theory, and hypothesis
        • Describe the this existing data, the variables they cover, and which ones are the ones you will examine and why
      • Although existing datasets are good, you should also collect your own, brand-new data. Describe how you will go out to collect your own data (laboratory tests, surveys/questionnaires, interviews, observations in the field, etc.), from where will you get the data, from whom, and for how long? You need to describe in exhaustive and vivid detail as though you are making a comprehensive chronicle/journal of how you and your team will go out to collect the data. Be as descriptive as possible when discussing your…
        • Planned budget
        • Who your team will be and how many
        • Where you and your team will travel to to get your data
        • Your timeline (how long your research will take)
        • Your sample
          • How many people you want in your sample and why
          • How you will get your sample (detail the entire process of how you will recruit human subjects to participate in your research)
          • Describe in detail how you will protect your human subjects and uphold research ethics
            • Address things such as risk, harm, informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity, etc.
      • Describe in detail your research instruments
        • For example, if you are doing a survey questionnaire, please include it here (it should contain the directions that you created for the survey, your entire list of survey questions and answer choices, etc.)
      • Describe in detail your anticipated data analysis
        • OK, so you if you have your raw data, how will you analyze them to find relationships that will help to prove/disprove your theory and hypothesis?
          • Describe how you will create your dataset (spreadsheet), your codebook, how you will look for statistical relationships of statistical significance
            • For example, describe which variables you want to statistically analyze, how you will run OLS multivariate regressions (don’t forget to describe what it means first) on those variables, what types of coefficient/slopes (positive or negative) you hope to seefor each variable, and what kinds of p-values you hope to see for each variable, and what those readings that you hope to see will tell you about whether your theory and hypothesis are correct
      • Describe in detail any hurdles/challenges that you think you and your team will face and how you plan to overcome them

The most important thing is to provide as much detail and explanation as you possibly can. Your grade will be based on how detailed you are in explaining your project in all of the required sections of the prospectus, and how thorough you are in using (and applying) as many class concepts in each of the required sections. Explain everything and give every little detail about every possible thing that you plan to do for your project. Remember, this is just your proposal of what you plan to do for your project in the future, so you are free to be as imaginative/creative as you want.

Invest Substantial Amounts of Money in Public Broadcasting

For 3 points, write up to 300 words to justify the case for one side of the following debate

Pro: The United States needs to invest substantial amounts of money in public broadcasting,
just like most other established democracies. A major non-profit public broadcasting system
would present balanced views of the issues to the American people and give viewers a better
understanding of politics. Political polarization would be reduced by exposing everyone to
serious discussion of public policy as opposed to today’s focus on sensationalizing stories for
profit.

Con: Investing more money in non-profit public broadcasting would be a big waste of taxpayer
dollars. People tune into news programs for entertainment as well as for information. Americans
prefer media sensationalism over serious balanced discussion of the issues that is the hallmark
of public broadcasting. We cannot reduce political polarization by exposing everyone to boring
television news. People will just change the channel to something more interesting.

For 2 more points, write a response of up to 150 words to something posted on the other side of
the issue

Discussion Post Expectation:

– Clearly state which side of the debate you are on.

– Provide at least 3 arguments for why you chose the respective side.

– If you have difficulty in coming up with 3 arguments, provide additional examples (with appropriate references/citations) that illustrate your understanding of the debate topic and support your view on the debate.

– Stick to the debate at hand. While background to the issue is important, keep it concise and focus on arguing why you chose the respective side.

Response Post Expectation:

– Respond to someone who has the opposite stand relative to your view.

– Provide at least 2 counter arguments referencing the arguments made by the person you are responding to. Don’t just say that you do not agree with their point of view. Support your disagreement with appropriate counter arguments (at least 2)

– If you have difficulty in coming up with 2 counter-arguments, provide additional examples (with appropriate references/citations) that counter the view of the person you are responding to.