Program Overview

Research Methods and Statistics - Part I

Course Overview

The Research Methods and Statistics - Part I course is designed to impart skills and prepare students for a research career in science education. The course is instructed by G. Nagarjuna and carries 4 credits.

Course Details

• Duration: September to December
• Day/Time: Monday, 10 am-1 pm

Course Content

The course content includes:

• Reading and writing technical and research documents
  • Reviewing literature
  • Taking notes from books and papers
  • Maintaining a bibliography of a selected domain
  • Writing technical and research documents
  • Introduction to best practices in ICT
• Critique and rigor
  • Asking questions
  • Critiquing assumptions
  • Economy of expression
  • Making everything explicit
  • Alternative ways of thinking
  • Appreciation of multiple theoretical standpoints
• Collecting, organizing, analysis, and presentation of data
  • Collecting qualitative data
  • Collecting quantitative data
  • Visual presentation of data
  • Knowledge organization
  • Ontology of a domain
  • Modeling
  • Tabulation and spreadsheets
  • Graphs: conceptual and Cartesian
  • Plotting data
  • Analysis of data
  • Scales of measurement
  • Hypothesis formulation
  • Hypothesis testing
  • Appreciation of statistical methods
• Understanding types of research methods

Assessment

• Assessment will be continuous and project-based.
• Students should be prepared to engage in numerous activities and document them.
• The topics will not be delivered in a sequence but will be invoked in the context of tasks or projects to be performed by the students.

Course Coordinator

The course coordinator is responsible for overseeing the course and ensuring its successful delivery.