Fundamentals of Research

Literature review identifies and synthesizes the relevant knowledge in a field, helps explore what has happened before, and reveals the most recent evidence and gaps for further study.

Identify the research gap by examining top cited articles, building a brain trust of mentors, and reading meta-analysis and systematic reviews to uncover future research directions.

Select the right database for your field, identify precise keywords, build a systematic process, gather recent knowledge, skim abstracts, assess methodology, and manage references.

Explore the differences between qualitative and quantitative research and the various methodologies. Learn how triangulation integrates both approaches to strengthen knowledge and guide your study.

Explore epistemology to understand how knowledge is created, and examine the knowledge of the external world and the other minds problem through questions about conventional wisdom.

Explore the differences between qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including epistemology, purpose, researcher role, data collection and analysis, and when to generalize or contextualize findings.

Discover how to analyze quantitative data by selecting tests like t tests, correlation tests, ANOVA, and chi square to measure relationships across descriptive, correlational, quasi-experimental, and experimental designs.

Define data as values derived from numbers, words, and measurements. Differentiate data into qualitative and quantitative forms, including discrete and continuous data, and explain independent and dependent variables.

Learn how data analysis inspects, cleanses, transforms and models data to reveal information that informs decisions; compare descriptive and inferential approaches and key tools like regression and structural equation modelling.

Explore how surveys collect data from a sampled audience using structured questionnaires, including online and paper-based methods, and how platforms like SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics store and analyze responses.

Select appropriate questionnaire questions based on your research objectives and scales. Use open-ended, Likert, semantic differential, dichotomous, multiple-choice, and rank-order formats, and avoid hypothetical, embarrassing, biased, or double-barreled questions.

apply the 3d approach to design a questionnaire by clarifying survey aims, defining variables and keywords to measure, and selecting the appropriate question formats, with examples in the exercise files.

Explore the advantages and disadvantages of surveys, including large-scale data capture at low cost, easy conversion to quantitative statistics, high consistency, and biases that limit deep insights.

Acquire a basic foundation in research, including methodology, data analysis, and thesis planning with practical templates; share your feedback to help improve this course.