This page contains links that may provide valuable assistance to you as you complete the requirements for this course and throughout the remainder of your program and the dissertation process.  Most of these were submitted by former or present doctoral students.  Please use them freely and send recommended additions to Dr. Backes.

WEB LINKS

Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Research Subjects
http://www.valdosta.edu/grants/institutional.shtml#hrsp
This site provides the necessary information and forms for Valdosta State University faculty and students to receive the authority to proceed with research projects and papers.

Writing and Presenting Your Thesis or Dissertation
http://www.learnerassociates.net/dissthes/
Another site on writing the dissertation.  This one is written by a professor at Michigan State University.  It has a nice checklist, with an explanation of each item on the checklist. (

Phi Delta Kappan
http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kappan.htm
This link is to the Phi Delta Kappan journal.  This journal advocates research-based school reform.  Kappan provides a forum for debate on controversial subjects.

National Center for Educational Statistics
http://nces.ed.gov/
This link is for the Federal Government’s clearing house for educational data collected and analyzed in the United States and other nations. A good place to look for research studies conducted in U.S.A.

The Qualitative Report
http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/web.html
This link provides a list of links to different sites that address qualitative research methods and practices.  If  you have a qualitative research question the answer is here.

National Library of Education
 http://www.ed.gov/NLE/index.html
This link is federally funded library devoted solely to education.  NLE is the federal government's main resource center for education information.

The UNC Writing Center- How to Write your Dissertation
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/dissertation.html
This website offers practical tips on how to avoid the ABD (All But Dissertation) status.  Sponsored by the Writing Center at UNC, it takes you through the process of planning, writing, and completing your dissertation.  There are also many useful links at the bottom of the webpage. 

 A Qualitative Approach to Selecting your Dissertation Committee
http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR2-4/hernandez.html
This article was printed in the “The Qualitative Report”, an online journal dedicated to qualitative expression.  It addresses one student's experience of the process of selecting appropriated faculty members for her dissertation committee.  For those of us still floating out there in space, it could be an interesting read with some helpful tips in choosing your committee members. 

How to Choose a Topic for a Dissertation
http://www.ehow.com/how_13148_choose-topic-dissertation.html
This site offers some general tips on how to select a topic for your dissertation.  Although not rocket science, it is a quick read and offers some practical tips on how to identify a topic.  This site also made me chuckle as I noticed several advertisements for custom written dissertations in the right hand column. 

Untitled
http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i45/45a01001.htm
This site provides a bit of comic relief for those who are struggling with getting their dissertation completed.  The article is about one man’s story in which he attends “dissertation camp,” a wee-long program in Colorado that assists people with buckling down and getting out of the ABD doldrums.

Untitled
http://www.abdsurvivalguide.com/

This site allows you to sign up to receive a free newsletter focused on helping you to get your dissertation completed.  It is very informative as well as entertaining.

Untitled
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/dissertation.html

This is the site of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center.  They have great handouts on how to complete your dissertation.  The center offers helpful tips including the importance of soul-searching, managing your dissertation committee and how to deal with exhaustion.

Untitled
http://dbs.galib.uga.edu/cgi-bin/ultimate.cgi?dbs=getd&userid=galileo&action=search&_cc=1

This is the site allows one to search the University of Georgia Electronic Theses and Dissertations from summer 1999 until the present.  This might be a good place to start searching for dissertations to critique.

Learner Associates.net: Focused on Learning and the Learner
http://www.learnerassociates.net
This site had a workshop for writing dissertations.

Untitled
http://www.dissertation.com
This site is another step by step guide to write a dissertation. The site also headlines with a warning to ABD's on the loss of income.

Digital Dissertations from ProQuest
http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/gateway
This is a site to access digital dissertations. There seem to be a great many reviews you can view free of charge, but if you want to order any of them it will cost about thirty dollars.

Dissertation Doctor
http://www.dissertationdoctor.com/endorse/utribune.html
You can even hire a dissertation coach!

Sister mentors: Promoting education among women and girls of color
http://www.sistermentors.org/washingtontimes.htm
This is one women's account of writing her dissertation. Afterwards she decided to help other women of color. This site is a support group for women of color writing their dissertations.

US Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml
This site is the starting point for national education policy analysis.  It is the source site for the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and provides links to federal publications concerning a wide range of issues like teacher preparedness, school lunches, etc.

National Center for Education Statistics
http://www.nces.ed.gov/
This is a sub-element of the USDOE, it is the primary federal site for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other countries.  It has direct links to a variety of data sets that can be downloaded and used for statistical analysis.

Georgia Department of Education
http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/
This is the state-level official site for education.  It also has official statements and publications related to education policy in Georgia.  The site has a statistics section which has a variety of comprehensive data sets which can be downloaded and used for statistical analysis.

Compendium of National Juvenile Justice Data Sets
http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/Compendium/index.html
This is sub-site of the US Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).  This site provides a scroll-down list of other interesting databases and studies: Continuing study of lifestyles and values of youth, National longitudinal study of youth, 1997, National youth risk behavior survey, to name a few.

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
http://www.bls.gov/ 
This site provides a wealth of statistical data on things like employment, trends, economic data, demographic and geographic data, employment research.  Several longitudinal studies can be accessed from this link.