How to do qualitative research?
A beginner's guide to planning, conducting and describing your first qualitative research study
Description
This course is an essential resource for undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students, as well as anyone else undertaking a qualitative research project. Using practical examples, I take you through what should happen at various stages in the project's schedule, starting with developing your research idea, research aims and research questions, and ending with a discussion of what to put in the Conclusions chapter.
I also explain the general research designs (e.g. Quantitative vs Qualitative research) and research methodologies (narrative research, ethnography, case study, grounded theory and phenomenology), as well as methods of data collection and analysis. I discuss a range of other elements of a qualitative research study (have a look at the course structure to explore it further) and provide down-to-earth explanations of the most confusing and complex terminology and issues related to research (e.g. how many participants/research methods are enough in a research study, what is, and how to increase validity, or what are philosophical worldviews and why are they so important).
This relaxed, but also clear and professional approach is in fact what my students (both those virtual and real-life) like most about my instruction. Take a minute to explore the course content, and join me in the course - I have a feeling that you will like it!
What You Will Learn!
- How to plan and conduct a qualitative research study!
- The difference between a research idea, research aim and research question
- What a paradigm, epistemology and ontology are
- The link between research paradigms, research questions and research methods
- Different participant recruitment techniques and know how many participants are enough in a research study
- The difference between research design, research methodology and research methods
- Different research designs, methodologies and methods
- The aims of qualitative data analysis
- Similarities and differences between different approaches to qualitative data analysis
- Inductive, deductive and abductive reasoning
- Different forms of bias and know how to address them
- How to increase validity of the findings
- The importance of piloting a research study
- What to put in the limitations, results and conclusions sections
Who Should Attend!
- Students who want to learn about qualitative research
- Professionals who want to conduct research in their workplace
- Teachers who want to have a clear resource for teaching about qualitative research
- Anyone interested in qualitative research