RESEARCH METHODOLOGY (3 Credits)

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this Course, students will be able to: Develop a research project proposal; Perform an appropriate literature review; Determine appropriate methods and objectives for addressing the aim of a project; Write an outline and final manuscript for a “conference-style” paper; Construct the front-matter, introduction, background, and outline of a dissertation; Present and review the results of research to a group of their peers.

Topics:

1. Introduction to the Course;
2. Starting the research project: problem formulation;
3. Elements of the research proposal;
4. More on Research Designs, Hypothesis and Experimentation;
5. Finagle and Fraud in Research? See Stephen Colbert’s segment on the Rogoff and Reinhart Austerity paper;
6. Experimental and Ex Post Facto Designs;
7. Statistical Techniques: data preparation, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics;
8. Ethics & Professional Responsibility in Research;
9. Graduate Education, the Research Community and Research Politics;
10. Proposal Title & Presentation Slides Scientific method.