Welcome

What is this week about?

The main aim of this short course is the development of applied research
skills. You will consider issues of design, data collection and analysis,
drawing on examples from ‘real-world’ contemporary research activities. At the end of the week we hope that you will feel more confident and able to think about questions that relate to your own work environment in a more critical and rigorous way.

Course structure

The basic structure of the week is:

Monday – Overview and introduction to research

Tuesday & Wednesday – Quantitative methods

Thursday & Friday – Qualitative methods

There are five computer laboratory sessions in which methods of handling and analysing data are introduced. Support is provided by facilitators who each work with a group of 4 to 6 participants.
Three additional lectures will be provided by guest speakers, on themes
including the research/practice interface in quantitative and qualitative
research, and ethical issues and processes.

Finally, there is an online forum where you can post questions and comments to the course team and each other.