Research Methods and Data Analysis
space
Course code
IFI7004
old course code
IFI7004
Course title in Estonian
Uurimismeetodid ja andmeanalüüs
Course title in English
Research Methods and Data Analysis
ECTS credits
4.0
Assessment form
Examination
lecturer of 2023/2024 Spring semester
Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.
lecturer of 2024/2025 Autumn semester
Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.
Course aims
The purpose of the Research Methods and Data Analysis course is to give a basic knowledge of research methods and to develop skills to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of different research methods. The course is also aimed at providing participants with theoretical knowledge and practical skills for processing statistical data and carrying out elementary data analysis. In addition to that, the course is set up to develop the ability to choose appropriate methods for analysis and presen¬tation, as well as to understand and interpret correctly the meaning of statistical results.
Brief description of the course
The Research Methods and Data Analysis course is a basic course that introduces participants to research designs for empirical and constructive research, classification and main features of research methods, choice of methods depending on research purposes and questions and philosophical underpin¬nings for different research methods. The course also covers topics on preparation of statistical data for analysis, different types of data, descriptive statistics and charts, issues of relationships, population and sample, statistical inferences, tests of statistical significance as well as parametric and nonparametric tests.
Learning outcomes in the course
Upon completing the course the student:
Ability to choose appropriate research methods and approaches to solve the formulated research problems;
Ability to recognise and comparatively differentiate between different types of research designs;
Awareness of the main quality criteria for academic research;
Skills for setting up research questions and choosing the appropriate methodology according to the questions set;
Ability to design simple instruments for data collection;
Ability to create statistical data-tables with an appropriate structure;
Understanding of the principles of data analysis;
Experience in setting up questions about data which lead to statistical analysis; Understanding of main concepts of descriptive statistics, knowledge of prerequisites for their correct application and ability to interpret the results of the analysis correctly;
Ability to recognise different types of variables.
Teacher
prof Katrin Niglas
space