Admission requirements
Mandatory course for students enrolled in the bachelor’s programme Security Studies.
Description
This course follows-up on the course Research Methods I, where we move on from developing a research proposal to learning more about the data collection and analysis possibilities in social science research. You will be provided with thorough theoretical and practical knowledge on how to conduct research by examining a variety of data collection methods and of the principal methods of analysing social scientific data. Specifically, you will be learning about surveys, discourse analysis and interviewing. Furthermore, you will be introduced to the statistical software programme SPSS, and to the qualitative software programme Atlas.ti to help you analyse quantitative and qualitative data.
This course is divided up into lectures and course labs. The lectures will provide the theoretical knowledge on the data collection methods while the course labs will focus more on gaining practical skills on how to analyse the collected data. At the end of this course you are able to conduct your research, analyse your data and learn how the results are disseminated in a social scientific manner.
Course objectives
The student is introduced to three different social science research methods: two qualitative approaches (document analysis, qualitative interview) and one quantitative approach (survey).
The student is able to determine which research method, or methods, are best suited for the research question he or she aims to answer.
The student learns how to gather documents, interview data, and survey data that are needed to answer his or her research question.
The student is able to analyse quantitative and qualitative data using statistical software (SPSS and Atlas.ti).
The student is able to report his or her findings with clarity and precision.
The student understands the importance of intellectual integrity and ethical scholarship.
Timetable
On the right side of programme front page of the E-guide you will find links to the website and timetables, uSis and Blackboard.
Mode of instruction
7 plenary lectures
4 course labs in smaller groups (attendance is mandatory)
Course Load
Total study load of 140 hours
Contact hours: 33
Self-study hours (including working on the research papers): 107
Assessment method
2 x research papers, each counting for 50% of the final grade.
Both research papers must be 5.50 or higher to pass the course.
Attendance for the course labs is mandatory. Missing more than 1 session will lead to a fail. In case of a fail no grades will be given, only a fail. This implies that a resit will not lead to a pass.
Resit
Students will be permitted to resit an examination if their grade for the research paper(s) is lower than 5.50 or with permission of the Board of Examiners. The resit entails redoing one or both of the failed assignments.
Resit of the research paper(s) is only possible if you have done and handed in both research papers in the first round. Resits are not possible for passed research papers and papers that were handed in pro forma.
Transitional Arrangement
Students who participated in the course “Research Methods 2” in academic year 2018-2019 but did not manage to pass the course will take part in the following transitional arrangement:
1. Students who did not pass the seminar assignments and the exam last year will follow this year’s rules regarding the assessment methods for this course. This means that students will write 2 new research papers.
2. Students who passed the seminar assignments but not the exam can keep their grade for the seminar assignments and will be given an oral exam. More information regarding the oral exam will be provided on Blackboard in due course.
3. Students who did not pass their seminar assignments but did pass the exam will keep their passed grade for the exam but write 2 new research papers. These research papers will be worth 30% each. NB: If the combined grade of the 2 research papers is higher than when the grades of the research papers are combined with the grade of the exam, the highest grade will count.
Blackboard
Course page will be available one week in advance
Reading list
Information on readings will be announced on Blackboard
Registration
Use both uSis and Blackboard to register for every course.
Register for every course and workgroup via uSis. Some courses and workgroups have a limited number of participants, so register on time (before the course starts). In uSis you can access your personal schedule and view your results. Registration in uSis is possible from four weeks before the start of the course.
Also register for every course in Blackboard. Important information about the course is posted there.
Contact
dr. Pauline Aarten, course coordinator p.g.m.aarten@fgga.leidenuniv.nl