The following gives an overview of the (high-level) learning goals of 803. All learning goals are roughly written in a form "after taking this class, the student should be able to ...".
- Summarize and interpret a body of literature on a particular topic; identify gaps in the literature; write a literature review
- Formulate and motivate research questions
- Understand what research designs and research methods are available for empirical research
- Compare the suitability of different research designs and research methods in different scenarios; explain the relative strengths and weaknesses
- Design empirical studies for different purposes (e.g., evaluating a tool, understanding a phenomenon); choose appropriate methods and defend the choice
- Combine research methods in a mixed-methods design
- Collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data
- Design interview protocols and user surveys
- Code qualitative data
- Mine data from online repositories
- Run statistical tests and interpret results
- Build, validate, and interpret regression models
- Draw conclusions from empirical data
- Present results verbally and in writing