Aims

This course aims to provide students with basic knowledge and skills in social research methods which include setting research questions, collecting and processing data as well as analyzing and presenting the research outputs. Particular emphasis will be put on the critical evaluation of research findings and the techniques student required for their capstone projects. Equal emphasis will be put on the quantitative and qualitative approaches of social research.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

1. Distinguish the quantitative and qualitative approaches of social research as well as their limitations.
2. Locate relevant literature, critically evaluate findings from research and identify competing theories on the research areas as well as to develop and refine research questions from broad research areas
3. Design survey questionnaire to collect relevant data and to implement various survey sampling methods.
4. Adopt relevant statistical tools in analysing survey data and to produce and interpret statistical outputs with the aid of computer software.
5. Apply various qualitative research techniques in collecting data and to interpret the findings.
6. Communicate findings of research in both written as well as oral means and to use appropriate tabular and graphic format for presentation.
7. Identify the ethnical issues in the research process.