Research Methodologies
Code
200086
Academic unit
NOVA Information Management School
Credits
7.5
Teacher in charge
Cristina Isabel Galamba de Oliveira da Costa Marreiros
Teaching language
Portuguese. If there are Erasmus students, classes will be taught in English
Objectives
Prepare students to conduct the diferent stages of a research or work project, or project, which include the design and planning of the proposed work, project implementation, the definition of objectives and methods, and preparation of final the report (dissertation, thesis, project or internship report). Provide to students an opportunity to:1) integrate the acquired knowledge;2) exercise and expand their ability to:a) independent study;b) use the literature to develop and justify their arguments through critical analysis of information from various sources;c) discuss results and draw conclusions based on literature and information gathered, with the formulation of new concepts and proposals for future work;d) communicate and present results in an appropriate style , resulting in a final report properly structured
Prerequisites
None
Subject matter
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1. Introduction to research work. 4. Methodological approaches in scientific research. Strategies and methods for research |
Bibliography
BRYMAN, A. (2012). Social Research Methods. 4rd ed. Oxford University Press Inc.;
OATES, B. J. (2006). Researching Information Systems and Computing. London: Sage Publications;
RECKER, J. (2013). Scientific Research in Information Systems: A Beginner's Guide. Progress in IS, Springer;
SAUNDERS, M.; A. Thornhill e P. Lewis (2012). Research Methods for Business Students. 6th Ed. Prentice-Hall;
CATER-STEEL, A. e L. Al-Hakim (2009). Information Systems Research Methods, Epistemology, and Applications. IGI Global Snippet
Teaching method
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The course will be divided in two parts: Lectures and tutorials The first part will consist of 7 lectures, which will be held until the 24th of October. On this first part of the course, in addition to the recommended readings and introduction to the themes in the classroom, the students will develop a proposal for their final master works. Structured discussions and sharing of experiences will be encouraged. In the second part of the course, students will be divided in smaller tutorial groups according to their proposed topics. Participants will faced with the need to address the issues that systematically arise during the preparation of a master final work, which include choosing a theme, identifying a problem to study, clarification of objectives, formulation of hypotheses, model building, application of quantitative, qualitative and mixed data collection and reporting of results and conclusions. The goal of the tutorials is for students to share with their peers the development of the master work and to get more personalized feedback on their dissertations. For each group seven tutorials will be held, starting on the 14th of November week. Timetables will be defined for each group by the tutor. |
Evaluation method
Course assessment will be divided also in two parts, each of which accounting for 50% of the grade.
Assessment of the 1st part is based on the proposals for research, project work or internship report:
- Proposals are evaluated from 0 to 20 (pass mark: 10).
- Assessment criteria and contents to include in the proposals are available on the document “guidelines for the master proposal” on Moodle.
Assessment of the 2nd part is based on at least two individual presentations about the master´s work.
- The contents and schedule of these presentations will be defined by the tutors on the first tutorial.
- Attendance to the tutorials is compulsory. Each student has to attend a minimum of 5 tutorials to get a pass mark.