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THE EDMG 611 course has been beneficial for me as I complete my master’s degree in emergency/disaster management. Before the course, I was somewhat familiar with what a case study is, but not in-depth. Learning how and why case study research is structured was a key learning experience for me. I like how the case study is structured, methodical, and focused. Learning about the different research methods in case studies was very useful to learn on this course. One of the benefits of case study research is that many methods can be applied. Methods include ethnographic, historical, psychological, or sociological research (Hancock & Algozzine, 2016). In this course, learning about the three main qualitative research methods – interview, observations, and document analysis was extremely helpful (Blumberg et al., 2014). Various case studies also helped me to learn about proper methods of research in this course. The annotated bibliography assignment was a useful assignment because it helped me view good examples of case study research. For example. the case study article,
Lessons for California from the November 2006 Tsunami in Crescent City California. Solutions to Coastal Disasters 2008: Tsunamis was influential in guiding my research (Barberopoulou et al., 2012).
For my capstone research, I am possibly looking at analyzing the effects of the National Guard FireGuard program. The National Guard Fireguard program is a unique program in that its mission is to track and map wildfires across the United States. The program has been in existence since 2019 (National Guard Bureau, 2022). I think that the case study method approach is appropriate to examine the benefits of the Fireguard program because it is analyzing the personnel, the program, and their actions. Case study research methods including interviews, data analysis, and observation can be applied to research on Fireguard. The biggest possible hurdle to conducting this research would be to get permission from the federal government.
References:
Barberopouloum, A., Uslu, B. & Dengler, L. (2012). Lessons for California from the November 2006 Tsunami in Crescent City, California. Solutions to Coastal Disasters 2008: Tsunamis.
Blumberg, B. F., Cooper, D. R., & Schindler, P. S. (2014). Business Research Methods (4th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Hancock, D. R., & Algozzine, R. (2017). Doing case study research: a practical guide for beginning researchers (Third edition.). Teachers College Press.
National Guard Bureau. (2022, November 18).
Fireguard program enhances national guard wildfire-fighting. National Guard.