Research Methods and Design

Explore research design and the scientific method, learning to define a problem for course papers. Develop a theoretical framework, formulate hypotheses, and apply technical writing guidelines.

Guide students through the creative and systematic journey of research design, from topic selection and problem framing to thesis development, methodology, results, and citations.

Explore, describe, explain, critique, and assess while pursuing practical applications by following the scientific method, observe, question, hypothesize, predict, gather data, and develop theories, aiming for proximity to the object.

Master topic selection by self-examination and introspection, align interests with your discipline, review literature, generate plausible questions, and pick topics close to you for motivated research.

Explore how to conduct an initial literature review, refine research interests through reflection, and use the Dewey Decimal classification system to locate relevant sources across disciplines.

Define and narrow research topics by adding restricting context, transforming broad subjects into specific, testable claims; review literature to balance scope from broad to narrow and back.

Determine the significance and rationale of a research topic through the so what question, illustrated by the conservation of the porpoise in the Sea of Cortez and its ecological impact.

Identify a significant research problem by narrowing your topic, form questions, and analyze parts to guide hypotheses and your thesis.

Identify the research problem as the central element guiding problem finding and defining. Differentiate problem types (descriptive, normative, correlative, and causal) and narrow topics into specific, answerable questions and hypotheses.

Evaluate the problem's feasibility, biases, data access, and significance, then build the background by tracing its historical development and literature using primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.

Form a clear, testable hypothesis as the proposed answer to the research problem, aligned with the thesis statement and the theoretical framework, guiding the project.

Learn how a theoretical framework situates a research problem within established theories, guiding the background, hypothesis, and emerging properties across disciplines.

Differentiate single-discipline theoretical frameworks from composite frameworks that merge theories across disciplines. Single frameworks deepen knowledge but limit innovation, as seen in Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Rogers's humanistic psychology.

Develop innovative research by composing two or more theories from diverse disciplines into a composite theoretical framework, enabling new solutions and insights across fields like neuroscience, architecture, and sociology.

Explore types of research methodology and design, from historical and descriptive to true experiments, across eight categories, and learn how statistics or non-statistical designs shape study purpose, problems, and hypotheses.

Learn correlation, regression analysis, and causal comparative and true experimental designs to study relationships between variables, with emphasis on experimental and nonexperimental research and controlled comparisons.

Explore how researchers use instrumentation: drawings, models, questionnaires, surveys, interviews, and observations to collect data and ensure validity, guided by the senses and the Dewey Decimal classification system.

Explore cases and variables, including independent, dependent, control, and intervening types. Learn data items, observations, and scales—nominal to ratio—and how bar graphs and histograms display these results.

Explore measurement and scaling theory, compare nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scales, and learn why ratio scales support all four mathematical operations.

Weave quoted material into your research narrative using narrative patterns and graphical context, organize results with text and graphics, and apply the author-year documentation method for quotes, paraphrase, and summaries.

Use graphics and data displays to help readers visualize procedures, mechanisms, and processes, integrating illustrations, photos, videos, charts, and diagrams that stay consistent with the surrounding text.

This lecture explains organizing a research project like a programmable project, detailing front matter, introduction, problem, background, hypothesis, methodology, results, conclusions, and end matter.

Examine a playful, fragmented transcript tied to the course catalog within research methods and design. Notice the repetition of 'it's over' and names like birdie and bernie.