Online Research Project I Course

Study Research with a Home Learning Course

• Learn to plan and conduct research for any industry or discipline
• Discover ways that research skills can improve performance and sustainability of any business
• 100 hour self paced course, expert tutors

There are 7 lessons in this course:

1. Determining Research Needs
   • Introduction
   • Identifying research needs
   • The research goal
   • The research question
   • Other questions to clarify the research goal
   • Sources of information
   • What information is required
   • Depth and bredth of data
   • Constraining factors: time, resources
2. Searching For Information
   • Kind of exploratory research
   • Primary data research
   • Literary reviews
   • Research objectives
3. Research Methods
   • Research terminology
   • Experimentation
   • A controlled environment
   • Other field trial considerations
   • Steps in collection and analysis of data
   • Setting up a comparison trial
   • Running the trial
   • Evaluating the trial
   • Interviewing skills
   • Procedure
   • Asking questions
   • Types of questions
   • Ways of handling difficult questions
4. Using Statistics
   • Introduction
   • Official statistics
   • Reasons for using statistics
   • Disadvantages of statistics
   • Issues to consider
   • Descriptive statistics
   • Observed and expected rates
   • Confidence intervals
   • Standardising
   • Conducting Statistical Research
   • Reliability of statistics
   • Presenting statistics: pie charts, bar charts, histograms
   • Descriptive statistics: mean, median, mode, variation, standard deviation, etc
   • Correlation, Probability
5. Research Reports
   • Collecting quantitative data
   • Conducting a survey
   • Procedure for designing a survey
   • Forms of data
   • Planning a formal survey
   • Designing a questionnaire
   • Common problems
6. Research Reporting
   • Report writing tips
   • Structure of a report
   • The report outline
   • Research papers
   • Referencing
7. Reporting On A Research Project
   • A practical project involving construction of a proper research report

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims:

• Develop your ability to collect, collate and interpret data and prepare reports in ways relevant to the work environment;
• Monitor and evaluate your own work in order to develop a responsible attitude to workplace performance and quality assurance;
• Determine areas where there is a valid need for research which are relevant to area of study;
• Explain research methods, including experimental techniques, commonly used in your discipline.
• Understand of the basic statistical methods used for research;
• Locate, collect and evaluate information for a specific research purpose;
• Prepare a research report in a format which conforms to normal industry procedures.

For more information on this course, please request your free course information pack.