Institutional research as a context for teaching methodological skills

This paper presents a model for teaching a research methods course by engag ing students in institutional research. This highly effective teaching stra tegy combines collaborative learning with pragmatic experience through a se ries of didactic assignments focused on institutional research. Students in the research methods class described in this paper analyzed data gathered through an alumni survey and presented their findings to several university offices. in this paper, we outline the structure of the course, describe t he assignments used to guide the students through the semester, and conclud e with a discussion of the effectiveness of this model, particularly as it addresses recommendations for "study in depth" in undergraduate sociology.