ME-428 Quantitative Research Methods

The course is connected to the following study programs

• Master's Programme in Public Health Science
• Master's Programme in Clinical Health Science
• Master's Programme in Sports Science
• Master's programme in Psychosocial health

Teaching language

This course is taught in English if English-speaking students attend.

Course contents

The course deals with challenges in and critical use of quantitative research designs. It will give an extensive understanding on how to design quantitative studies for specific research questions. The course will focus on quantitative analyses and how these should be interpretated and disseminated. The course will also include work with the project plan.

Main themes in the course:

• Research designs

• Different quantitative data collection methods

• Different quantitative analyses by statistical software

• Discussing quantitative findings

• Presenting findings in a scientific context

• Research ethical reflections

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will:

Knowledge

• demonstrate knowledge on how to apply different statistical analyses to investigate the relationship between variables based on different designs

• demonstrate knowledge on how to select critically and assess how the analysis reflects the data foundation

• be able to demonstrate thorough ethical judgement both in relation to one's own role as researcher and how the data collection may influence people's lives

Skills

• be able to design studies and collect data independently

• be able to apply statistical software independently to analyse data

• be able to report empirical data independently

General competence

• be able to analyse current scientific and methodological questions

• be able to critically assess the statistical analyses and interpretation of data by oneself and others

• be able to critically reflect upon the research by oneself and others

• be able to independently design quantitative research projects in accordance with research ethical guidelines

Examination requirements

Approved project plan for the master's thesis

Teaching methods

• Lectures with exercises

• Group work

• Independent studies

Expected workload in this course is approximately 270 hours.

Evaluation

The person responsible for the course decides, in consultation with the student representative, the method of evaluation and whether the course will have a midterm- or end of term evaluation, see also the Quality System, section 4.1.

Assessment methods and criteria

Individual written home exam over five days. The exam will be based on a set of data which will be handed out and relevant statistical methods must be used. The paper must be in the form of an article. Grades A-F will be given.