Admission requirements
Mandatory course for students enrolled in the bachelor’s programme Security Studies. Only students of the Bachelor Security Studies can take this course.
Description
In this course we move from learning the basic concepts in social science research, as you have learned in Introduction to Research Methods, to gaining an in-depth insight into data collection techniques and analysis possibilities in quantitative research. Specifically, you will learn about survey research, how to make your own survey and how to collect data with survey research. Furthermore, you will explore various statistical methods that you will need to apply to help you answer a safety and/or security research question.
This course is divided up into lectures and course labs. The lectures will provide the theoretical knowledge on how to make a survey, how to distribute it and an in-depth explanation of the various statistical methods that you can utilise to help you answer a research question. The course labs will focus more on gaining practical skills on how to make a survey using existing software such as Qualtrics and analyse data using the statistical software programme SPSS.
Course Objectives
At the end of this course, you will be able to:
Identify and explain what quantitative research methods entail;
Develop and distribute a quantitative survey;
Carry out univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses on quantitative data;
Choose the correct statistical method to help you answer your research question;
Use the statistical software programme SPSS to help you do quantitative analysis;
Analyse and interpret the results from SPSS in a correct manner;
Critically evaluate and critique (your own) quantitative research design(s);
Report your findings with clarity and precision;
Work in a team on a research project.
Timetable
On the right side of programme front page of the e-guides you will find links to the website and timetables, uSis and Brightspace.
Mode of Instruction
7 plenary lectures
4 course labs in smaller groups.
Attendance of the course labs is mandatory. If you miss more than 1 course lab you fail the course and won’t obtain a final grade.
Total study load is 140 hours:
Contact hours (lectures and course labs): 33 hours
Self-study hours (including working on the end-term assignments): 107 hours
Assessment method
Group assignment
25% of the final grade
Grade must be compensated
Resit not possible
Individual paper
75% of the final grade
Grade must be 5.50 or higher
Resit of a fail is possible
Resit will take the same form
Students will also be permitted to resit the individual paper (75%) if they have a calculated overall course grade lower than 5.50.
Transitional arrangements
Passed partial grades obtained in year 2021-2022 remain valid during year 2022-2023. Students who did not meet the course lab attendance requirements in 2021-2022 are required to attend the course labs in 2022-2023.
Reading list
Compulsory literature for this course is:
Aarten, P.G.M., Froneberg, E., Hewitt, J., Krüsselmann, K., & Peterscheck, A. (Eds.) (2020). Research Methods for Security Studies. SAGE. ISBN: 978-1-5297-5409-4.
Other (suggested) literature will be listed on Brightspace in due course.
Registration
Please use My Studymap or uSis to register for this course and its workgroups. After you have been enrolled for this course you will be automatically enrolled into the specific Brightspace course page. Course registration is possible from 12 July, 13:00 h. Registration for the workgroups is possible from 1 August, 13:00 h.
Access to Brightspace is necessary because the syllabus and other information about this course can be found here. Furthermore, announcements and modifications will be communicated via Brightspace. Students have the responsibility to stay informed and are thus advised to regularly check Brightspace for updates. In uSis you can access your personal schedule and view your results.
Contact
Remarks
For exceptions, please contact the Board of Examiners.