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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Understanding Research Methods by University of London

4.6
stars
7,199 ratings

About the Course

This MOOC is about demystifying research and research methods. It will outline the fundamentals of doing research, aimed primarily, but not exclusively, at the postgraduate level. It places the student experience at the centre of our endeavours by engaging learners in a range of robust and challenging discussions and exercises befitting SOAS, University of London's status as a research-intensive university and its rich research heritage. The course will appeal to those of you who require an understanding of research approaches and skills, and importantly an ability to deploy them in your studies or in your professional lives. In particular, this course will aid those of you who have to conduct research as part of your postgraduate studies but do not perhaps have access to research methods courses, or for those of you who feel you would like additional support for self-improvement. No prior knowledge or experience in research is required to take this course and as such, the course is for everyone. This MOOC draws on a wealth of existing course material developed to support research training across SOAS, University of London and particularly drawing from the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy (CISD). In 2015, the course was nominated for the prestigious Guardian University Award for its innovative approach to online learning. Participation in or completion of this online course will not confer academic credit for University of London programmes...

Top reviews

A

Jul 26, 2017

This is wonderful course especially for research scholars, one suggestion is instead of giving articles from books, please provide a PPT which will be more effective ! thank you for wonderful session.

CS

May 9, 2022

Really easy to follow and great advice from all the experts! It has helped me organise from the beginning of my dissertation and I feel more comfortable getting started on what is a big project ahead.

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1776 - 1800 of 2,338 Reviews for Understanding Research Methods

By Yasir K

Mar 7, 2020

This course is good for beginner student of research and recommend too. But i would suggest to add more visual content to the course, understand how can literature review be done systematically, replace chap data with presentation slides and elaborate the research methods with good examples. That's will become a complete package.

By Russell K B

Jan 25, 2021

I highly recommend this course to anyone seriously considering a career in academia whether you are barely starting research or have been doing so for a while but never got trained.

While the emphasis, texts, and examples lean heavily on the social sciences field. There is still something to be learned for all areas of academia.

By kathryn

Aug 16, 2015

Great introduction to research methods for anyone contemplating a research masters of Phd. I haven't studied for a while, so found the course content particularly useful. Course is taught through a combination of videos, readings and weekly assignments which are peer reviewed. Weeks 2 and 3 of the course are particularly useful.

By Rida A

Nov 8, 2020

The course was more towards social research and innovation, but still had considerable content to add on to the skill set of students with science backgrounds. Simple and elegant course structure. Would have been better if the entire book was provided for reference rather than individual chapters needed in the course syllabus.

By Sohila A G

Sep 1, 2020

Great course... The most enjoyable part is the interaction with each other. The peer-review assignments were very nice. I have learned a lot from others. Our professors were very nice and the videos were short and very useful. If you want to improve anything; the voice of the videos should be louder especially of dr Simon.

By Malathi J

Jul 18, 2022

It is good. I learned how to do the research, process, types etc. Able to know the difference of the three research methods qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods.

Also understand about the scientic research and other research methods. And learned about surveys, questions (open and close ended) case studies etc.

By Mario A P P

Sep 22, 2017

Me gusto mucho la metodología, las experiencias y la forma de crear informacion mediante diálogos con investigadores. Recomiendo mucho este curso si tienes en plan o en desarrollo lo siguiente:trabajo de tesis,investigacion,tarea de proyecto o simplemente por que te dedicas a una área de constante desarrollo científico.

By Khan N S

Jan 28, 2021

The course provides a very clear understanding over the research and the importance of literature review in carrying the research and to have a good quality research with the significance of time management to carry the work of research project. The course is of great importance for future learning of research work.

By Ashraf Y

May 17, 2020

Its a very good experience. I have learnt a lot through this course. It gave me an idea about the research approaches, methods and design to plan my study. I still wanted to know more on this research methods. I will be grateful if you find me further level of course (online) in you university. Thank you very much.

By Anuj K T

Jan 28, 2021

I find this course very uniquely and practical oriented. Its really very interesting and provides an opportunity to think and write your ideas of research. The peer-review concept is also very interesting and gives you a different exposer while you are going through others writ-ups. So thank you the team.

By Aswan G

May 1, 2020

Understanding Research Methods MOOC by University of London helped me out to get extensive knowledge on the basic fundamentals that a researcher should have and should look into. I thank the Course Instructors Dr.J.Simon Rofe and Dr.Yenn Lee, SOAS,University of London for preparing this informative MOOC.

By Ana C

Sep 7, 2021

Great overview of the research methodologies employed in higher Education. The articles and readings offer a wide scope of general knowledge. I would have expected more in depth explanations when coming up with questions, qualitative and quantitative methodologies and online platforms (google scholar).

By Hilary W

Nov 24, 2020

I have really enjoyed this course but I have been a little disappointed by some of the submissions I have been asked to review and some of the comments I have had. I don't think people have taken it as seriously as I have (!!!)

But thank you for making this material available, I intend to continue.

By Erica M V

Nov 30, 2015

This course was basic yet covered many important elements for research design. It helped me to better understand the parts of design. The readings were relevant and the assignments were thorough enough to solidify main ideas. The videos were interesting. I would recommend the course for beginners.

By Kakhangchung P

Aug 7, 2017

Was really helpful for me especially in peer reviewing others works. Enables us to indirectly or directly share ideas. I found the week on the importance of literature review most helpful for me as this is the area if done properly will generate proper and relevant ideas of your research.

By Emmanuel D

Dec 5, 2017

This is an interesting course about some aspects of research methods. The lessons are really "light" (and for me, a bit too general), but I learned a number of practical tips and tricks about the necessity to carefully review the existing literature and about the writing of a report.

By Amber G

Jun 3, 2017

this is a great course for those people who are new to research because most of people don't know how to manage their work or what methods are followed in research .This course will help you to start on a research project as you'll understand how to do research in a correct way.

By Kwabena M

Jun 20, 2020

I had never thought I would enjoy a class in research methods again after a horrible introduction in my undergraduate study and I was scared this would limit my ability to undertake a Masters' study yet, here I was glued to my screen every week enjoying it! Thank you, Coursera!

By Rakesh G

May 14, 2021

Thank you for the course. It was very helpful and easy to understand. I will definitely use this methods in my research work and hope to get further more advanced courses to learn in future. Once again Thank you to the Instructors and the entire team for your support.

By ANAS E

Jul 7, 2022

I think that is a good course. Maybe you need more videos explaining the research method with schema, examples in different fields ... etc. And not just a discussion with an expert and a lot of reading.

Thank you very much for all the stuff, hoping to see you soon !!

By Islam A E

Jul 22, 2020

It was such a helpful course, even though the syllabus was concentrating on researching Social Studies and I am a researcher in Civil Engineering. The session concerning time management need to be modified to suite its title as the content and the title didn't match.

By Phuoc V H

Oct 5, 2021

Overall an easy and light course. 2 hours per week, 4 weeks, and you're done!

However, the discussion theme from week to week seem discrete to me. Or maybe I expected differently.

I also expected more responses/discussions from the lecturers rather than just learners.

By Sanaullah S

Apr 10, 2020

This is an interesting course for beginners in the field of research. The most amazing thing about this course is that it is light, will help you understand what is the research question, how to undertake literature review and how to plan your overall research work.

By Katherine M

Jun 7, 2017

Overall, great class! I learned a lot about research methods as a process. However, I wish there was a way for the course to be more academic. I am took this course as a means to help me apply to a PhD program, and I am not sure it will count in an academic setting.

By Jason A E

Dec 12, 2020

Overall very good. The peer review assignments were helpful. The readings and videos were pretty good. As an occasional peer reviewer for a journal, I enjoyed the content and review exercises. I found it helpful to watch the videos at a faster speed, x1.25 - x1.50.