Research and evaluation in education and psychology: Integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods (3rd edtn)

As experienced health researchers at IPH, we believe that the approach to teaching research methods needs to be re-imagined.  Despite the tremendous changes in the landscape of health research, the growing need for implementation research, mixed methods research and the need for research that policymakers can use, most courses have been unable to break away from the traditional approach of qualitative & quantitative research.

In this Certificate course in Research Methods (eRM) course, we start with helping the student develop clear and well formulated research questions. Participants are then taught how to select research designs and methods best suited to answer the research question, beyond the usual epidemiological disciplines. We encourage the use of interdisciplinary strategies including use of methods that have evolved from other disciplines such as the social sciences. We also teach basic mixed-methods designs and introduce students to health policy and systems research. The course aims to enable students to write research proposals that are coherent from the research question through choice of design and methods to analysis plans. We also teach how to make a budget and the essentials of project management that are essential for a good proposal.