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The course introduces students to quantitative, qualitative and mixed research methods used by the social sciences to study environment and development issues and problems. The course will increase students’ knowledge of how scholarly and applied research is designed and implemented, and will enable them to assess the quality of research required as an input into policy making.
The course considers questions of epistemology and the philosophy of science, and the implications of theory for the design of research. The course critically engages with the main features and methods for conducting quantitative and qualitative research. Understandings of the ethics conducting and publishing scholarly research will be integrated throughout the course lectures and discussions.
Active student participation in learning will be promoted through teaching methods that include lectures, class discussions, computer lab sessions, weekly reaction papers, and extended essays.
There are no statistical pre-requisites to attend the course. However, some knowledge of the basic concepts of statistics will be useful.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- position research within major epistemologies and philosophies of knowledge;
- assess the rigor of proposed research and research methodologies;
- develop research questions and hypotheses and to choose appropriate methods to research them;
- apply appropriate qualitative and quantitative research methods to a particular research problem;
- understand aspects of positionality and subjectivity in scholarly research
- critically analyse, design, operationalise, and write research studies
Other Information
Delivery Mode:
Semester 1; on campus and distance education.
Indicative Assessment
- Tutorial assignments 15%; quantitative assignment 40%; qualitative assignment 38%, participation in class discussions 7% (15) [LO null]
- The change in indicative assessment is due to informal feedback received from students in Semester 1 2010, which indicated that they prefer to have assessment spread over several items, including participation in class discussions that involve a good amount of preparation. (null) [LO null]
The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
Workload
4 contact hours and about 6 hours reading and writing per week
Inherent Requirements
Not applicable
Requisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
Journal articles and book chapters.
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
If you are a domestic graduate coursework or international student you will be required to pay tuition fees. Tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 2
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are an undergraduate student and have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). You can find your student contribution amount for each course at Fees. Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2019 | $3840 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2019 | $5460 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.