Reliability and Validity Concepts

Discussions are a way to demonstrate your understanding of the course material, while learning from your peers. Engaging with your peers about the ideas you are learning helps to sharpen your thought process, and it helps to add relevance to the topics of the module. As you are reading and viewing the course material, take notes and think about some issues you would like to discuss and gain more perspective on. The discussion boards links are posted below.

Here are some tips for participating in the discussions:

You will be required to post your own answer before you can view anyone else’s answers. Students who make “ghost postings” (blank postings) will receive a zero for that Discussion Board assignment, because blank postings gives students access to the information in other postings, which is the equivalent of cheating. There are no exceptions to this rule.

You will have the option of subscribing to the threads, whether your own or another student’s. This way, if you find a topic interesting and want to follow how it progresses, you will receive email notifications when someone else posts to it.

You are encouraged to type your posts into a document on your computer and save it on your local hard drive, before copying and pasting the text here. This way, if there is any glitch with Canvas, you will not lose all your work. While technical glitches are rare, they do happen, and it is important to take precautions. (But please, do not attach your document to the discussion board. Paste the text for easier viewing.)

Discuss why reliability and validity are important in research and how they may differ depending on the type of research you are performing. Additionally, create an example of a problem criminology and criminal justice as a field would face if validity and reliability were not considered when using research to create policy