EMP 873 B. Rubik 3 credits
Research Design Methodology
Description
This course will address the issues pertaining to quantitative and mixed method (quantitative and qualitative combined) research design and implementation, to assist doctoral level students in their dissertation research. Areas addressed include the following: identifying the research problem; formulating a testable research question; selecting an appropriate research design; choosing appropriate instruments; collecting data; and evaluating results. This course does not cover statistical methods; note that this topic is covered in another course. Specific examples of research designs will be drawn from social science, psychology, biology, business, and health science. In addition, the spectrum of issues in research on human subjects, including safety, ethics, recruitment, retaining subjects, confidentiality, informed consent, and the review process, will also be covered. Students are encouraged to bring their doctoral research issues into the course for online discussion with the instructor and other students.
Objectives
- Formulate focused research questions that are clear, concise, and central to the specific aims of a project
- Understand hypotheses testing, and how to formulate testable hypotheses from research questions
- Explain the various types of quantitative and mixed methodology research designs and how to select a strategy to best fit all aspects of a proposed study
- Identify existing instruments to address a specific question and/or develop new instruments for testing
- Understand the issues of validation or confirmation and reliability of research instruments
- Understand what is involved in conceptualizing, setting up quantitative research, and collecting data, toward completion of the doctoral dissertation
- Critique research designs and methods provided in research proposals and/or published research
- Understand how to present and comprehend quantitative data in tables and graphs
- Design research plan involving human subjects
- Formulate well-considered subject inclusion and exclusion criteria
- Construct tasks and/or instruments for human subjects that address the research questions
- Write and administer a human subject informed consent form
- State the requirements for handling human subjects in federally sponsored research
- Critically review and analyze research involving human subjects
Topics
- Conceptualizing a project aim or research problem into an appropriate research question
- Developing testable hypotheses
- The Scientific Method
- Research designs—including surveys; randomized controlled and parallel-group studies; outcome studies; cross-over study designs; pilot studies; field studies; surveys; and polling
- The use of human subjects in research: recruitment, safety, ethics, confidentiality, informed consent, and other issues
- Identifying and/or designing data collection instruments including Likert scale questionnaires
- Measurement issues including reliability and validity
- Creating study designs with attention to power analysis
- Independent and dependent variables; additional parameters including confounding parameters
- Daily operations of data collection in research, including use of instruments
- Encoding the data and preparing it for statistical analysis
- Probability concepts and theory as related to hypothesis testing
- Strategies for data presentation in tables and graphs
Texts
- Creswell, J.W. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches
- Dunn, C.M.D., Chadwick, G.L. Protecting Study Volunteers in Research
- Katrak, P., Bialowcerkowski, A.F. A Systematic Review of the Content of Critical Appraisal Tools BMC Medical Research Methodology 4(22). Web-based journal article available at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2288/4/22
- Marczyk, G.R., DeMatteo, D., Festiger, D. Essentials of Research Design and Methodology
- Nardi, P.M. Doing Survey Research: A Guide to Quantitative Research Methods
- Yeager, J., Sommer, L. How Linguistic Frames Affect Motivational Profiles and the Roles of Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research Strategies The Qualitative Report 10(3), pp 463-511
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