Module Content

Literature Reviewing:
• Finding and reading academic literature
• Writing a literature review
• Critical thinking and writing
• Critiquing academic papers

Philosophy and Paradigms of Research:
• Overview of research methods
• Understanding research methods

Collecting, Analysing and Reporting Research Data:
• Interpreting data and statistics
• Designing and conducting a simple experiment
• Designing and conducting a survey
• Reporting the results from an experiment or survey in an appropriate style
• Referencing, citing and quoting
• Writing an academic paper

Teaching Methods

This class is taught in different ways and the teaching strategy differs according to whether it is being delivered as a burst (two weekends) or a semester long course. When taught in burst mode the first half of the course covers the ‘evaluation’ of research and the second half the ‘creating’ of research.
As a highly practical module – the teaching is by example and by doing. Lectures are collaborative with class input and work done beyond the class is made relevant to the students according to their courses.
As this is a skills based course it is ideally suited to incremental class activities. The constraints on the assessment for this module require that students do work in between taught classes and that this is reviewed before formal assessment – to that end each assessment has a pre- hand in where students can get feedback.
The second assessment often ends up being quite a lot longer than 2500 words as it is very hard to write an academic paper to that length and given there is an emphasis on real word application in the course, students are encouraged to write a paper for publication in their second assignment.
Distance learning The module tutor will deliver live online lectures through Adobe Connect. During the live lectures the participating students will have the opportunity to engage in discussions, present their views and ask questions. The lecture sessions will be recorded and made available to the students through Blackboard. Students who cannot participate in a live lecture will have the opportunity to answer and reflect on guided questions in the subsequent live lectures or participate asynchronously on discussion boards. The module tutor will provide appropriate feedback to students’ comments, as a result of the discussions. Feedback will primarily provided asynchronously through Blackboard, but when the need arises, the module tutor will schedule live sessions to provide further feedback. Where appropriate, students will be also provided with relevant further reading, web links and resources for independent study. Speakers from leading organizations will be invited, where possible, to deliver invited talks and enhance the students’ experience.

Assessment Methods

This module is assessed through one Exam and one Research Paper.