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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Understanding Research Methods by University of London

4.6
stars
7,841 ratings

About the Course

This MOOC is about demystifying research and research methods. It will outline the fundamentals of doing research, aimed primarily, but not exclusively, at the postgraduate level. It places the student experience at the centre of our endeavours by engaging learners in a range of robust and challenging discussions and exercises befitting SOAS, University of London's status as a research-intensive university and its rich research heritage. The course will appeal to those of you who require an understanding of research approaches and skills, and importantly an ability to deploy them in your studies or in your professional lives. In particular, this course will aid those of you who have to conduct research as part of your postgraduate studies but do not perhaps have access to research methods courses, or for those of you who feel you would like additional support for self-improvement. No prior knowledge or experience in research is required to take this course and as such, the course is for everyone. This MOOC draws on a wealth of existing course material developed to support research training across SOAS, University of London and particularly drawing from the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy (CISD). In 2015, the course was nominated for the prestigious Guardian University Award for its innovative approach to online learning. Participation in or completion of this online course will not confer academic credit for University of London programmes...

Top reviews

CS

May 9, 2022

Really easy to follow and great advice from all the experts! It has helped me organise from the beginning of my dissertation and I feel more comfortable getting started on what is a big project ahead.

A

Jul 26, 2017

This is wonderful course especially for research scholars, one suggestion is instead of giving articles from books, please provide a PPT which will be more effective ! thank you for wonderful session.

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76 - 100 of 2,497 Reviews for Understanding Research Methods

By Kavita N

Oct 15, 2020

Thanks to this course I am now able to appreciate and understand the three research methods and approach to research design. I liked the way the course has been designed and put together. It would be helpful if we had more readings suggestions. I am especially grateful to the team of professors/researchers that put this course together. Please consider offering a specialization on each of the Research Methods.

By FRANCE A N

Aug 28, 2019

I am glad to have finished this course in a short span of time and have learned so many things about research. Thank you so much to all my generous classmates who have shown their interest in helping me gain knowledge through their feedback to my submitted tasks. Kudos to all the researchers around the world! Together let's contribute to build a better society for the future generation through our researches.

By Muhammad H

Sep 18, 2023

I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to Coursera and the University of London for providing me with the opportunity to complete the "Understanding of Research Methods" certificate. This prestigious course has enriched my knowledge and skills in research methods, and I am truly grateful for the invaluable learning experience. Thank you for your commitment to accessible and high-quality education.

By Tran T T

Jun 18, 2020

Very useful course. I'm sure this course have improved my understanding about research methods and will support me a lot in my future tasks. Thank you SOAS very much for offering this to us. Regarding assignments, they are all very helpful, but it would be great if you can review and make some further clarification for E-tivity 3, to ensure all learners have common understanding about what to do. Thank you!

By Antonio M

Apr 10, 2020

The course, although it is basic has tips that can help you a lot in the development of a good investigation, there are phrases that stay in your head, some cold like "You must be able to stop your investigation if you evaluate that it does not have any sense and that it does not go anywhere. That must be the hardest thing for a researcher who has spent a lot of time and even sleepless nights on a job.

By D K J

May 27, 2020

The course is extremely useful for all the intending researchers. Although, students learn many things from their supervisors and colleagues, the learning is not structured and eventually they waste more time and sometimes fails to recognize if their research is not meaningful. This course provides clear guidelines for a systematic and meaningful research. I recommend this course to every researcher.

By Ariful I

Jun 22, 2020

i think this is very effective course for those who want to do a research first time. this course can help you to think deeply . you can learn some unique technique to start your research. such as worldview is very important and effective topics.thanks dear course coordinator Dr. J. Simon Rofe and Dr. Yenn Lee for your best quality lecture. thanks to coursera for arrange this course for us.

By Juwita R

Aug 29, 2020

Flexible online course and informative videos. You'll reap valuable benefits if you commit to the E-tivities. If you just do it for the sake of doing it and not learning anything, you'll gain nothing. The E-tivities are suitable for the course environment. This course provides a basic understanding of what to expect when conducting research. A good start for a novice researcher like me.

By Aloysius S

Nov 14, 2021

Good foundation course for students intending to take up research at UG/PG level. It is an introductory course, and the learner could access the internet resources for getting further insights into research. There is no end to learning research, each time we pick up a topic, it shows several new areas which are yet to be explored, and that is where the challenge lies in doing research.

By Nidhi

Jul 1, 2021

At the end of this course, i am very happy that my university gave me such an opportunity to do this course at home before starting our academic session. In this online environment i have learnt so many things like literature review, research approaches,research method and many more. I just want to thank coursera team and my university too for providing basic knowledge about research.

By Ghayda A غ ا

Sep 4, 2017

This course has helped me to build a mini proposal, for a paper I've been thinking about for two years. I owe the course its encouragement and giving me the 'push' to write something on this subject. I will always remember a sentence from the last video: "Research isn't something one does between 9 and 5. It's something you wake up in the small hours of the morning thinking about."

By AHMAD W T

Jul 31, 2020

No doubt I have learned a lot from this course. Deep insight regarding research methodology. My capabilities are now being enhanced to write a research proposal as compared to before starting of this course. Now the sequence of the research proposal will be more clear and in logical pattern. I tried it again to write, now the first proposal has been improved in understanding.

By Michelle V

May 21, 2021

This is an excellent course designed to guide one's thinking critically towards executing appropriate methods to collect, analyse, interpret and validate data to answer a socially relevant research question that can impact the future by contributing to some void in the present literature or body of knowledge. A truly AMAZING course!! Thanks to all who are involved. Michelle

By Sothearak N

Jun 12, 2016

I am really impressed with the opinion and examples from different scholars on each topic of each lesson of the week. This gives me a better grasp on understanding Research Methodology Clearer which I couldn't even attain when I was in my unstandardized college in Cambodia. I'd definitely recommend this course to my fellow and junior classmates who wish to study research.

By John C C

Jul 3, 2020

Learned a lot from the course. It expanded the mind on research methods. The videos shared are inspiring and very informative. Grateful to the people behind this course. Happy to know that are people coming from different backgrounds joined the course. Nice to read their comments and reviews on my work. Thumbs up to the professors who facilitated in this undertaking. 😊

By LAURA N A B

Jul 12, 2017

El curso es muy amigable y me agradó la modalidad de entrevistas a investigadores para que hablaran desde su experiencia, además las lecturas propuestas son muy útiles y fáciles de comprender. Realizar y recibir retroalimentación fue valioso, sugeriría en este sentido, mayor claridad en las indicaciones para enviar tareas, ya que los trabajos variaron mucho en calidad.

By Sonya R

May 25, 2021

I think it has been a useful course. I liked the video format, as that helps to engage the audience and keep the interest level up. I think the peer exercises have been very useful, and helps to get us used to critiquing work, as academics. One slight problem is when some participants do not genuinely engage, but I think the course is developed well to deal with that.

By Lowe L

Dec 21, 2021

I don't think this is on you, but rather Coursera, but it seemed like about 75% of the things I read from my "peers" were computer generated. Also, I believe I got one review that wasn't just one word like "good", it would have been nice to receive actual feedback. I think the minimum 50 word limit on reviews should probably be enforced more strongly to avoid that.

By Miguel A L N

May 22, 2019

Excelente curso. Me pareció muy completo ya que nos da un panorama muy detallado de lo que significa la investigación y los métodos y enfoques a seguir. Además, la utilización de videos explicativos facilitan el aprendizaje y la retención de la información. Adicional, las lecturas complementan los videos y hacen que de comprenda con mayor facilidad los conceptos.

By Mauricio G R

Apr 6, 2020

Creo que es un curso bastante dinámico, en lo personal creo que es muy bueno conocer las diferentes perspectivas de otros investigadores, en cuanto al enfoque y la postura al momento de recibir críticas sobre nuestro trabajo, al mismo tiempo, cuales son los resultados que busco, independientemente de mi area de investigación....¡muy, muy buen curso!

¡Saludos!

By Syed Z A

Dec 21, 2022

I found the "Understanding Research Methods" course to be both useful and enjoyable. All those individuals who are interested in learning about research methods, this course good fit for them. The course, in my opinion, is thorough and presented all key information in a manner that was easy to understand and could meet their requirements and learning goals.

By Sahla N M

Apr 10, 2020

Now I can easily figure out how to start, run and enrich my research paper and make it valuable. Thanks a lot to coursera for running such useful free online courses and making knowledge free for students like me. And also thanks a lot to University of London. I've really enjoyed my course under my incredible instructors Dr. J Simon Rofe and Dr. Yenn Lee.

By Chitralada C

May 16, 2022

This course is a very well designed, self-paced learning with a full range of tools and resources. as well as participating with the learners in the class at the same time Let's make this study like a real classroom study. The content covers the essence of the research process allowing learners to practice with the theory behind it that is worth reading.

By Dr. P K S

May 23, 2021

The course has been beautifully designed to understand the whole concept of research. I would strongly recommend this course to all the people pursuing masters or at the entry level of their doctoral research. Before going further to any other course or specialization, first you must pursue this master piece, specially if you are a beginner. Good luck!

By 이준형

Aug 8, 2016

It was nice and abundant for the 'basic' understanding about research methods. It leads to the further more deepen methodological approaches. If you already know about qualitative or quantitative something, it will be easy for you however if you are unfamiliar any other methodological approaches, this course give you essential information about that.