Course Contents

COURSE CONTENTS 1. The nature and role of research: Research and information, Conceptual foundations of research, Ethics of research, Research problems; hypothesis and objectives, Finding a problem to investigate, Primary and secondary data source; literature review. 2. Data collection: Principles and methods; research methods in natural sciences, Sampling concepts and statistics, Sampling and survey designs and questionnaires, Using case studies, Choosing appropriate research approaches and methods. 3. Qualitative and quantitative methods of inquiry: i. Quantitative method: Revision of statistical methods, Probability, Distribution, Samples,Variables, Hypothesis formation and testing, Research design and control of error, Questionnaire design. ii. Qualitative method: Ethnographic research, Unstructured interview, Action research, Case studies, Historical research. iii. Survey method: Attitude surveys, structured interview and questionnaire survey. 4. Data analysis: Quantitative and qualitative data analysis; processing the data, Data storage and manipulation. 5. Statistical methods and analysis: Chi-square, Correlation, Simple regression, Analysis of variance, t-test, Reliability and validity, Use of statistical software packages for the computer i.e., WINDOWS, SPSS and GENSTAT. 6. Presenting research: The qualitative and quantitative research report writing, interpreting the results, reporting the findings of the survey, the presentation and format of the report and thesis on a special topic. 7. Assignments: Written protocol for a survey or experiment on current environmental issues.

Course Synopsis

The course will provide an understanding of the techniques and concepts of the qualitative and quantitative research and will Illustrate stages and techniques of formulating research questions, designing different experiments, studies and surveys to collect data according to the nature of the research and resources available.

Course Learning Outcomes

The course aims to: 1. Revise the statistical methods of data collection and analysis. 2. Explain analysis techniques to summarize and organize data into meaningful form. 3. Provide an introduction to data analysis using statistical software packages for the computer i.e. WINDOWS and SPSS. 4. Explain the principles and methods of report, thesis writing and data presentation.