Case Studies, Online Databases, and the Senior Seminar

Extract

Students typically enter the senior seminar in political science having taken different sets of courses in the major and having developed interests in different subjects. They also may believe they are incapable of conducting social scientific research because they have limited skills and because the term is so short. In particular, students taking a capstone course in political science at a liberal arts college that, like Rhodes College, lacks a major research library may question their ability to accumulate in a timely manner adequate information about a subject of interest. These doubts and concerns are not unfounded. Fortunately, combining the case study method and online research resources offers a solution to these difficulties and can greatly enrich the senior seminar experience. This combination would also prove beneficial to faculty overseeing honors research or senior theses.