Courses featured in the Research and Writing Skills for Projects and Theses programme:

• Preparing your research and working with your advisor

  Overview

  Publication date: Winter 2016
  Core activities: 30 minutes
  Additional activities: 1 hour

   

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  Syllabus

  • Preparing to start
    – What makes a good undergraduate research project or thesis?
    – How do I get started?
    – Generating ideas
    – Building an interesting question and selecting a subject or area or research
    – Formulating your question or hypothesis
    – Thinking about ethics 
  • The role of research advisors and mentors
    – What are advisors and mentors looking for?
    – What is the role of an advisor or mentor?
    – Working with your advisor or mentor: your expectations and theirs
    – Taking ownership
    – Responding to feedback 
• Managing your research project or thesis

  Overview

  Publication date: Winter 2016
  Core activities: 30 minutes
  Additional activities: 1 hour

   

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  Syllabus

  • Time/cost/scope
  • Lifecycle of a project
  • Preliminary preparation
  • Detailed planning
    – What and why?
    – Aims and limits
    – Milestones and deliverables
    – Reviewing progress and re-evaluating
    – Working with other people
    – Communication
    – What to do when things go wrong  
  • Grant proposals and sources of funding
• Managing your time

  Overview

  Publication date: Winter 2016
  Core activities: 30 minutes
  Additional activities: 1 hour

   

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  Syllabus

  • Documenting your work
  • Day-to-day time management
  • Balancing other commitments
  • Note-taking
  • Managing yourself and taking responsibility 
• The literature review

  Overview

  Publication date: Winter 2016
  Core activities: 30 minutes
  Additional activities: 1 hour

   

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  Syllabus

  • What is a literature review?
  • Why carry out a literature review?
  • How to search for literature
  • Evaluating and thinking critically about the literature in your field
  • Reading and note-taking approaches
  • Managing the information: systems and approaches
  • Writing and structuring your literature review 
• The importance of ethics

  Overview

  Publication date: Winter 2016
  Core activities: 30 minutes
  Additional activities: 1 hour

   

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  Syllabus

  • Thinking about ethics: definitions and challenges
  • Types of research that need Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval
  • Key principles of ethical research
  • The importance of confidentiality
  • Research involving humans (participants, subjects, or objects) and the IRB
  • Research involving animals and the IRB
  • Informed consent: the difference between participant consent and informed consent; children; adults with learning difficulties
  • Academic integrity, and writing honest reports 
• Research methodology and methods: design and analysis

  Overview

  Publication date: Winter 2016
  Core activities: 30 minutes
  Additional activities: 1 hour

   

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  Syllabus

  • The relationship between the question or hypothesis and the methodology 
  • Methodology, methods and research tools: choosing the right ones for your research 
  • Designing your research: what to consider 
  • Thinking critically
  • Understanding the differences between qualitative and quantitative research
  • Working across disciplines and mixed methodologies
  • Data analysis: what type, how much and how to manage it
  • Reflecting on your approach
  • Common problems
  • Concluding your research 
• Qualitative research methods

  Overview

  Publication date: Winterr 2016
  Core activities: 30 minutes
  Additional activities: 1 hour

   

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  Syllabus

  • Exploring qualitative methods and when they would be appropriate
  • Research interviews and focus groups:preparation and conduct 
  • Questionnaire and survey design
  • Observations
  • Approaching archives and artifacts
  • Action research and community-based research
  • Case studies
  • Art practice and creative writing
  • Ethical challenges
  • Software options and selection
• Quantitative research methods

  Overview

  Publication date: Winter 2016
  Core activities: 30 minutes
  Additional activities: 1 hour

   

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  Syllabus

  • Exploring quantitative methods and when they would be appropriate
  • Questionnaire and survey design
  • Secondary data analysis
  • Field experiments 
  • Controlled experiments 
  • Observations
  •  Action research and community-based research
  • Case studies
  • Art practice and creative writing
  • Ethical challenges
  • Software options and selection
• Structuring and writing your research project or thesis

  Overview

  Publication date: Winter 2016
  Core activities: 30 minutes
  Additional activities: 1 hour

   

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  Syllabus

  • Structuring your project or thesis
    – Abstract
    – Opening sections
    – Introduction, literature review, methodology and methods 
    – Discussion and analysis
    – Conclusion (thesis) or recommendations (project)
  • New models of theses
  • Writing and dealing with writer’s block
  • Writing your first draft
  • Refining your first draft 
  • Academic honesty, plagiarism and references 
  • Checklist 
• Constructing your analysis, discussion and argument

  Overview

  Publication date: Winter 2016
  Core activities: 30 minutes
  Additional activities: 1 hour

   

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  Syllabus

  • Analysis and discussion
    – Using evidence
    – Constructing and developing arguments
  • Your voice and style
  • Disseminating your research:presentations, conferences, poster presentations, podcasts, journals
  • Communicating your findings to a general audience
  • Your role in the co-creation of knowledge