spring 2025
SVF-3618 Project design - 5 ECTS
Course content
The course provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental aspects associated with designing and conducting effective social science research. Research design involves making important decisions about research aims and strategies, methodology, data collection and analysis, ethics and ensuring trustworthy and well-grounded conclusions. The course addresses essential core elements in the process of designing and conducting a research project, including selection of the research problem, formulating the research purpose and research question(s) associated with it/them, choosing the logic of inquiry, elaborating on relevant concepts and theory, advancing methods and procedures for data collection and analysis. It aims to familiarize students with the challenges of designing research and equip them with the skills and knowledge necessary for writing a master thesis. As part of the course, each student’s major task will be to produce a detailed and comprehensive description of the master's thesis research design. The course involves a series of assignments where students focus on different components of research design, intending to contribute directly to the step-by-step development of the master thesis project description.Objectives of the course
Knowledge:
The student …
- has a sound understanding of research design principles and the underlying logic of the process
- can distinguish among different types of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods designs, their appropriate use as well as the strengths and weaknesses and the critical issues when designing a study
- has in-depth understanding of the key elements of research design and applies those for constructing own research
- gains a comprehensive understanding of research ethics and good research practice
Skills:
The student …
- can discuss the context and significance of a specific research problem, formulate a relevant research topic and provide a compelling argument for it
- demonstrates the ability to clearly articulate the main objective(s) of one’s own research by formulating analytical, researchable, and original research questions
- can identify and integrate key concepts and theories into a viable conceptual framework, ensuring that gathered data is pertinent and useful for addressing the questions posed in a master thesis
- can pinpoint gaps in the current literature that the master thesis aims to fill, summarize relevant literature related to the chosen research topic, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of existing research and produce a concise summary of the literature review on the chosen research topic
- can elaborate on different research methods used to collect data and the analytical techniques proposed to interpret the collected data and justify why these are appropriate for addressing the questions posed in a master thesis
- can discuss the significance of the proposed research and its potential practical contributions
- shall be able to both identify and address the ethical issues involved in the conduct of a chosen research project
- can assess the risks that may be encountered in designing and implementing research
General competence:
The student …
- has in-depth understanding of the fundamentals of research design
- can develop and refine a coherent and viable master thesis research design and present it to the general audiences
Schedule
Examination
| Examination: | Date: | Grade scale: |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment | 30.04.2025 14:00 (Hand in) | A–E, fail F |
Coursework requirements:To take an examination, the student must have passed the following coursework requirements: |
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| Assignment | Approved – not approved | |
| Assignment | Approved – not approved | |
| Video presentation | Approved – not approved | |
- About the course
- Campus: Online | Other |
- ECTS: 5
- Course code: SVF-3618
- Responsible unit
- Department of Technology and Safety
- Earlier years and semesters for this topic