Community and Economic Development
Graduate Education at Penn State
 

CEDEV 575: Methods and Techniques for Community and Economic Development (Offered Spring Semesters)
This course provides an understanding of methods and techniques often used in community and economic development. The course is application oriented, encouraging students to gain experience in using the tools and techniques of community and economic development. The course requires students to be able to access a local community of their choice, to use the tools and techniques in a real-world setting. While the focus of the course is primarily on data and tools often used for analysis of communities in the U.S., the methods and techniques have broad applicability for other countries at different stages in the development process.

Most topics are one week in length but a few span two weeks. Time is allocated at the end of the course for a final project designed to allow students to explore a topic in more depth or integrate across topics in the course. All course materials are located within our password protected course website. This course is a synchronous course, meaning that you are part of a "cohort" or learning community. There are regular dates for assignments, and fixed start and end dates. There are interactive sessions where you communicate with others in the class.

Course learning objectives:

Upon completion of CEDEV 575, you will be able to:

• articulate the types of data - primary and secondary - that are appropriate for analyzing community and economic development status and issues,
• apply a set of qualitative and quantitative techniques for collecting primary data, understanding both strengths and weaknesses,
• critically assess the use of secondary data for analyzing community and economic development status and issues,
• critically assess key tools for understanding linkages in economic structure,
• develop a grant proposal that has a high likelihood of funding success,
• design a project that will delve more deeply into a course topic and/ or integrate the components of the course to better understand an important community and economic development issue.

Required course materials:
The following materials are required:

• Salant, Priscilla and Don Dillman., How to Conduct Your Own Survey. 1994. (Must be purchased from MBS Direct)

For pricing and ordering information please see the MBS Direct web-site at: http://direct.mbsbooks.com/psude.htm or via telephone at 1-800-325-3252.

The course also requires purchase of the movie, Our Town Huntingdon. The movie can be purchased through the WPSU online store or by calling 1-800-770-2111 and ordering #0026vhs or #0026dvd. The video is used in module 4.

Materials will be available at MBS Direct approximately three weeks before the course begins. When ordering your course materials, please pay close attention to the version number (01WC). It is very important that you purchase the correct materials. If your course requires one or more textbooks, you must have exactly the correct text required (edition and year).

Required course readings are held on reserve at the Penn State Libraries. Access them through the "Resources" tab on the top of the page, then click on "Library Reserves" under the "Penn State Library Tools" list on the right-hand side of the page. Readings that are not available through the electronic reserves systems will be available on the course website for student use only.

Topics for the course

Module 1 – Welcome to the Course
Module 1 introduces you to the goals of the course and some of the course mechanics. You will also
learn how to navigate through the course lessons and how to use the course communication tools.
In Module 1 you will also select a community of interest to you and explore it - to understand what data resources are already available to gain some of the understanding that you need.

Module 2 – Engaging the Community in the Information-Gathering Process
In this module, you will explore different approaches to learning more about communities than can be established using secondary data. Specifically we will explore Community Asset Mapping, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) approaches to understand how these approaches are valuable to practitioners of community and economic development.

Module 3 – Qualitative Survey Approaches for Understanding Community Issues
Over the next set of lessons, you will explore specific survey approaches to gathering information useful for community and economic development. A number of different approaches to understanding a community depend on the use of qualitative surveys. For example, Community Asset Mapping, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)/ Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), and Community Needs Assessment approaches routinely incorporate qualitative survey approaches or tools. Qualitative tools are very often critically important and valuable for providing in-depth information that is hard to attain with other types of surveys. Examples include focus groups, nominal focus groups, use of key informants, and public forums.

In modules 3 and 4 we will explore several important qualitative approaches to conducting surveys and providing forums for community interactions to support the community and economic development process. Qualitative survey approaches can be extremely useful for gaining insights into important aspects of communities as well as community issues from different viewpoints. In module 3 we will examine the public forum approach, the use of key informants, and nominal focus groups. In module 4 we will cover - in depth - the focus group approach. We will then turn to quantitative survey approaches. Unlike secondary data that are collected by someone else, qualitative and quantitative surveys are used to collect primary data.

Module 4 – Conducting Successful Focus Groups
The module 4 lesson provides a more in-depth exploration of how to effectively organize and conduct focus groups to gain qualitative primary data. This module builds on the information from module 3 by outlining the steps to develop a focus group protocol, and conduct a successful focus group experience. Students completing this lesson will have experience in developing their own focus group protocols and will understand that conducting a successful focus group requires substantial planning and skill.

Module 5 – Protection of Human Participants - Preserving Confidentiality
In module 5 we will examine issues of human participant confidentiality, to help students in the course understand the importance of protecting human participants. Maintaining human subject confidentiality is important when conducting qualitative or quantitative surveys. Students will become certified for human participant research through Penn State's Office for Research Protections (if not already certified) and each student will develop human subject material for the focus group survey developed in module 4.

Module 6 – Looking Forward
Although there is one assignment for this week, this week is mostly a "breather week" - a time to catch up on any work that may not yet have been completed. This is also a week to look forward. You will have been out in your community, explored Huntingdon, PA, and learned tools and techniques for conducting qualitative surveys for community and economic development.

Module 7 – Designing and Using Quantitative Surveys
Module 7 lesson focuses on quantitative survey approaches, with a focus on developing an effective mail survey. Students will first learn about how to approach thinking about conducting a quantitative survey
and then learn alternative types of quantitative survey approaches focusing on face-to-face, mail, and
telephone surveys. Students will also learn about sampling and survey construction. Then, students will critique a survey instrument and over module 7 and 8 develop their own, learning from others in the
process.

Module 8 and 9 – More on Quantitative Surveys
The lesson for this module spans 2 weeks. Our focus on quantitative survey approaches, again to gain knowledge of how to develop and effective mail survey. You will learn how to organize surveys - an art in itself. And, you will gain information on conducting a mail survey, within a budget. This lesson is a two-week lesson because you will be designing your won survey, pretesting it, and then revising it. Designing an effective survey is time intensive.

Module 10 – More on Quantitative Surveys (cont.)
This week will continue the lesson that was started in Week 8. During this week you will complete the quantitative survey that you began in module 8.

Module 11 – Input-Output (I-O) Analysis
This module focuses on input-output (I-O) analysis, an important tool for impact analysis. Students are first introduced to the concept of impact analysis, to understand how (I-O) fits within the community and economic development toolbox. The three tables or matrixes important to I-O are then introduced: the transactions table, the direct coefficients table and the interdependence coefficients table. Note that the interdependence coefficients table also is often called the direct requirements table or matrix. The interindustry flows summarized in the transactions table or matrix are explained first, to provide an understanding of the various flows of goods and services within an economy. The importance of the interdependence coefficients table or matrix is explained, with the forward and backward linkages being highlighted. Throughout the discussion, the importance of final demand as a driver of the models is emphasized.

Also, you will be asked to start thinking about your final project for the course. You have now completed about two-thirds of the course and now have a good set of tools and techniques to draw upon in thinking about Final Project: 575.

Module 12 – The Use and Abuse of Multipliers
The lesson for module 12 builds upon the input-output technique developed in module 11, with a focus on the "multipliers" that are derived from the input-output tables. Multipliers are widely used in the development field - they can be very useful for measuring and understanding impacts of economic change but they can also be abused. This module introduces you to three broadly-defined types of multipliers: output, employment and income. The lesson focuses on computation of the multipliers as well as their interpretation. The uses - and abuses - of multipliers are also highlighted.

Module 13 – Secondary Data and Management
Module 13 highlights some of the popular data sources that can be used to gain information for community and economic development. You used many of these data sources in the module 1 presentations - to understand community demographic, social and economics structure. Week 13 explores some of the finer points of secondary data sources to enhance your awareness of some of the measurement issues that are presented by secondary data. Sometimes these issues are glossed over when using secondary data, but knowing the finer points - reading and understanding what is between the lines - is also very important for using the data correctly.

Module 14 – Grant Writing
Module 14 focuses on grant writing, a task that can be important for securing funding to undertake the type of work and projects described in this class. While you may have funding from your office, your local or regional community, an NGO to carry out the work, and you may be able to recruit volunteers to help you, securing grants can help to provide funding as well. In fact, some types of community and economic development work depend heavily on grant-getting activities. The material for module 14 provides you with a framework and tips for successfully securing grants.

Module 15 and 16 – Final Project
The last 2 weeks of the course are devoted to completion of Final Project 575.

This is a required course in the Postbaccalaureate Certificate in Community and Economic Development and in the Community and Economic Development Masters Degree Program.

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