Undergraduate Module Descriptor

SSIM904: Research Design Methods and Skills for AQM

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

This is an advanced level research design and methods course intended to equip you with a broad range of relevant skills and knowledge, allowing you to formulate research questions and carry out your own research projects. The primary aims of the unit are to:

Introduce the epistemological and methodological traditions in social science research and map the social science research space, particularly highlighting the range of quantitative methods used;
Introduce key skills for designing and organizing a research project, conducting critical reviews of published research; and disseminating and communicating research.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. Develop understanding of the principles of research design and appreciate multiple alternative approaches to developing and addressing research questions; 2. Develop critical understanding of the scientific method; 3. Understand the relationship between empirical research and theory generation and testing (theory-evidence links);? 4. Define a researchable problem and formulate research questions and hypotheses that are amenable to empirical investigation;
Discipline-Specific Skills	5. Show comprehensive understanding of issues posed by social research in relation to ethics, confidentiality and legality. 6. Demonstrate in-depth understanding of the principles behind causal inference; 7. Develop understanding of the theoretical and data structure assumptions underlying a range of advanced quantitative methods;
Personal and Key Skills	8. Demonstrate an advanced ability to study independently and effectively; 9. Develop the ability to present, summarize and report complex empirical results and methodological approaches for a non-academic (or non-quantitative) audience in order to engage the broader social science community, funding bodies and policy-makers in your research. 10. Become acquainted with relevant software tools and IT applications for the retrieval, analysis and the presentation of quantitative information.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

This course is delivered over six days, divided into two half-days at each institution (Bath, Bristol, Exeter) plus pre-reading material online in advance of each half-day session. Each half-day will entail lecture time plus seminars to discuss the material introduced. The main topics to be covered include: ontology and epistemology in social research; varieties of approaches to research design from different disciplinary backgrounds; question design and formulation; criteria for evaluating research and strategies to enhance research quality; critical evaluation of different methodologies; preparing research proposals and communicating research.

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
21	129	0

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	12	6 x 2 hours of lectures (2 hours per ½ day session). These lectures cover the main concepts of the course.
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	9	6 x 1.5 hours of tutorials/seminars (1.5 hours per ½ day session) .These practical sessions cover the application of techniques
Guided Independent Study	30	Reading the relevant literature discussed in class
Guided independent study	60	Reading and preparing materials for the 3 research projects that constitute the modules summative assessment
Guided independent study	39	Acquiring additional experience with software and computing tools required to conduct the type of analyses discussed in class

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

http://imai.princeton.edu/software/index.html

UK Data Services - https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk

NCRM - http://www.ncrm.ac.uk