LibGuides: Advanced Research Methods: Course Outline (MSHCM)

Course Outline

Course Outline
Contents

Overview and Course Objectives

This course is designed to lay the foundations of good theoretical and empirical research from an interdisciplinary perspective with a focus on Disaster Management and Health Care Management. Students become familiar with a variety of approaches to theory extension and development, research design and analyses, and are helped to develop their own research projects/dissertations and produce quality research papers. The students will be required to write a research paper at the end of the course and submit it to an international research conference as identified by the instructor.

The Course will also provide an overview of Social Sciences and Disaster Management Research in Islamic Perspectives.

The course will start with an introduction to the principles and methods of research: selecting a workable topic, developing theoretical framework, choosing the appropriate design, securing the respondents, making a test investigation, sampling, collecting data, types and errors of collected data, tabulating and analysing the data using statistical tools and software, interpreting the finding, stating the conclusion, drafting a research paper and finally submitting it to an international conference for possible consideration.

Required Course Materials and Readings

The course requires extensive reading on some topics (see Course Schedule section). The readings will be made available to students in advance of the classes electronically. Class meetings will involve group discussions of the assigned readings, punctuated with lectures and/or presentations. Each student will be responsible for summarizing and leading discussion on one or more assigned readings in class.

Indented Learning Outcomes

The specific course objectives are to help students develop:

The ability to translate basic/applied issues into appropriate academic research questions in the domains of Health Care Management and Disaster Management;
An understanding of how to publish in high quality research outlets.
The ability to contribute to the existing body of knowledge by publishing research papers, either theoretical or empirical, in journals of good repute.
An appreciation of the links between the issues being investigated and the method of investigation;
An understanding of the governing principles in the quantitative and qualitative research traditions, the merits and limitations of each, and of their independent and supporting roles;
The skills required to design and conduct research studies using quantitative and quantitative methods;
The ability to use SPSS software for data entry and statistical analyses and
The ability to interpret research results and establish the substantive meaning and implications of the findings.

Week 01	Introductory Session Course Introduction, Objectives, and Outline
Week 02	Research Methods and Process: An Overview Types of Researches Inductive and Deductive Approaches Basic and Applied Research Quantitative vs Qualitative Research Hypothetico-Deductive Method
Week 03	Social Sciences, Business and Management Research in Islamic Perspectives
Week 04	Theory and Theorizing: Making Sense of Data What theory is and Why it is important? Discussion on “Research Topics for Each Group” What is Plagiarism? Academic Dishonesty
Week 05	Critically Reviewing the Literature Concepts, Constructs, and Variables Searching Through Google Scholar Accessing Online resources How to read an Article Techniques to Review the Literature Writing the Introduction and Literature Review Providing in-text citations and End-References (APA style or AMR Style). Developing Theoretical Framework and Model Theorizing and Logical Flow of Argumentation Proposition and Hypothesis Types of Hypothesis
Week 06	Design and Methodology I Survey Design and Implementation Unit and Level of Analyses Measurement of Variables Data Collection Methods Primary Data Collection/Secondary Data Collection Reliability: Concept Clarity Validity: Concept Clarity Measurement Issues: Common Method Bias Online Survey
Week 07	Reviewing the Progress on research projects and feedback
Week 08	Design and Methodology II Selecting research design based on the purpose/type of the study Types of Study (Exploratory, Descriptive, Hypothesis Testing) Study Settings/Environment: Field surveys vs Laboratory/experimental designs Type of Investigation: Causal vs Correlational studies Time Horizon: Cross-sectional studies vs longitudinal studies
Week 09	Design and Methodology III Sample Design Probability/Non Probability Sampling Sampling Selection Issues Common Problems and Pitfalls Questionnaire Design Techniques of translation in Local Languages: Back to Back Translation
Week 10	Data Analyses Techniques Quantitative Analysis Using SPSS(R) (Statistical Procedures for Social Sciences) Data entry and Creating Variables Handling missing data Basic Data Analysis: Descriptive Analysis Reliability Analysis Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Control Variables Correlation, Simple and Multiple Regression Analysis Multicollinearity Diagnostics and remedies Test of Differences (t-test) An overview of Meta-Analysis
Week 11	Data Analyses Techniques II Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) Moderated and Mediated Regression Analysis Drawing Graphs for Moderation Testing Curvilinear Relationships Logistic Regression
Week 12	Data Analyses Techniques III Qualitative Data Analyses Content Analysis Ethnography Grounded Theory Interviews/Elite Interviewing
Week 13,14,15	Reviewing the Progress on Research Projects and Feedback
Week 16	Plagiarism check and Submission
Week 17	Final Exams