Research Methodology

Teaching Staff: Komianos Vassilis
Course Code: THE102
Course Category: General Background
Course Type: Compulsory
Course Level: Undergraduate
Course Language: Greek
Delivery method: Lectures
Semester: 1st
ECTS: 5
Teaching Units: 3
Teaching Hours: 3
E Class Page: https://opencourses.ionio.gr/courses/DAVA121/

Teaching Structure:

Activity	Semester Workload
Lectures	26
Lab Lectures	0
Tutorial	13
Hands-on Lab	0
Practice and Preparation	30
Independent Study	56
Course Total (ECTS: 5)	125

Prerequisite to / Recommended to: PRO050, PRO750

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Short Description:

The course introduces students to research methods and academic writing. Additionally, the course introduces students: a) to advanced skills related with information search, retrieval, evaluation, information technology and information ethics, b) to technical reading and writing for professional and academic purposes. 

 

 

 

Objectives - Learning Outcomes:

Students will be acquainted with sources, resources and research methods available in order to:

1. Form advanced search strategies
2. Use all available and current carriers of music-and-audiovisual-related information
3. Apply advanced search methods in bibliographic and meta-bibliographic databases
4. Apply advanced skills to form a research question, to organize an academic essay, to identify/evaluate sources, to argument/reason and to cite appropriately
5. Apply advanced research paper-related writing skills
6. Apply advanced skills to use reference management tools
7. Apply advanced skills to find other scholar/academic content 
8. Apply advanced ‘surfing in the Web’ skills in order to find valid music-and-audiovisual-specific information.
9. Apply advanced skills to evaluate annotated bibliography
10. Apply advanced skills to evaluate authority, currency, objectivity, purpose, relevance, etc.
11. Apply advanced skills to identify the importance of primary sources in the audiovisual arts domain.
12. Understand intellectual property, open access, academic integrity and plagiarism related issues.
13. Apply advanced skills to identify and use several citation styles, e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, etc.

 

Syllabus:

1st Week: Research Methodology: a review of the fundamental terms and concepts

2nd Week: Information packages - Theory and practice

1. Introduction to basic concepts 
2. Introduction to sources: primary, secondary, tertiary.
3. Information resources, types of content, types of carrier, types of media
4. Sources consulted for citation-and-references-related purposes.
5. Examples
6. Practice in class
7. Assignment

3rd Week: Information access, information retrieval, etc. theory and practice 

1. Introduction to access, search processes/techniques and information retrieval. General issues
2. Identifying sources.
3. Evaluating resources/sources. General attributes. General principles 
4. Introduction to Ionian University e-resources (e.g., Library OPAC, HeaL-Link, Project Muse, Jstor, Grove Art, etc.)
5. Research strategies
6. Examples
7. Practice in class
8. Assignment-Discussion

4th Week: Academic papers-specific issues - Theory and practice

1. Introduction to types of research/scientific research and research papers 
2. Research question and research methods. General issues
3. Advanced research strategies, e.g. Proximity operators 
4. Access, search process and scientific content-related information retrieval
5. Evaluating sources/resources. Specific attributes.
6. Argumentation/Documentation process. Referencing. Citing sources.
7. Examples
8. Practice in class
9. Assignment

5th Week: Academic/scholar journals vs Magazines- Content Selection/Evaluation-related criteria - Theory and practice

1. Identifying/classifying periodicals (i.e. scientific content vs commercial content or journals/serials vs magazines)
2. Evaluating content (print, hybrid, online). 
3. Examples
4. Practice in class
5. Assignment-Discussion

6th Week: The research problem and research strategies - Theory and practice

1. Steps of the research process
2. Identify and Develop Your Topic 
3. Review the literature
4. Define/clarify the problem
5. Define terms and concepts
6. Define population and methods
7. Develop plan
8. Examples
9. Practice in class

7th Week: Content evaluation skills - Theory and practice

1. Evaluation
2. Assessment of results/findings
3. Identifying the sections of journal-style scientific papers  
4. Technical reading
5. Producing new knowledge. The importance of primary research and research papers
6. Related terms-concepts. Vocabulary
7. Examples
8. Practice in class
9. Assignment

8th Week: Writing and documenting skills - Theory and practice

1. Structure
2. Synthesis
3. Writing style
4. Documentation
5. Plagiarism
6. Citation styles. Types of citation
7. Examples
8. Practice in class
9. Assignment-Discussion

9th Week: Originality - New knowledge production- Theory and practice

1. Originality
2. Research paper
3. Review paper
4. Examples
5. Practice in class

10th Week: Skills - Evaluation of sources and writing annotations for the annotated bibliography

1. Using annotated bibliography 
2. Using reviews
3. Using reference managent tools
4. Examples
5. Practice in class

11th Week: Skills - Using Reference Management Tools

1. Using the Reference Management Free Software Mendeley
2. Examples
3. Practice in class

12th Week: Ethics of information, academic integrity, plagiarism, etc. 

1. Intellectual property law (national, international). Technological and legal developments. Basic issues.
2. Information ethics. Academic integrity
3. Open Access content basic terms and concepts (e.g. Green Access vs Gold Access).
4. Licenses (e.g. Creative Commons).
5. Public domain.
6. Other issues (e.g. fake news, deep fakes, hoaxes, privacy, etc.) 
7. Examples
8. Practice in class
9. Discussion

13th Week: Summing-up

 

 

Suggested Bibliography:

• Adler, E.S. and Clark, R., 2018. Κοινωνική έρευνα: μια ξενάγηση στις μεθόδους και τις τεχνικές. 5^η έκδ. Μετάφραση από: Αριστείδης Χράπαλος. Θεσσαλονίκη: Εκδόσεις Τζιόλα.

• Lubart, T., 2018. The creative process: perspectives from multiple domains. [e-book] Pulgrave Macmillan. Διαθέσιμο από:<https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50563-7>

• Pruzan, P., 2016. Research methodology: the aims, practices and ethics of science. [e-book] Switzerland: Springer. 10.1007/978-3-319-27167-5

• Umberto E., 2001. Πώς γίνεται μια διπλωματική εργασία. Αθήνα: Νήσος.

• Πολίτης, Α., 1998. Υποσημειώσεις και Παραπομπές. Ηράκλειο: Πανεπιστημιακές Εκδόσεις Κρήτης.

• Θρασύβουλος Μ., 1998. Δομή και Γραφή της Επιστημονικής Εργασίας. Αθήνα: Ελληνικά Γράμματα, 1998.

• Λιαργκόβας, Π., Δερμάτης, Ζ. και Κομνηνός, Δ., 2019. Μεθοδολογία της έρευνας και συγγραφή επιστημονικών εργασιών. Θεσσαλονίκη: Εκδόσεις Τζιόλα

 

Teaching Methods:

Duration: 3 hours

• Lecture
• PowerPoint presentation
• Posting lectures
• Posting home-assignments 
• Posting links and bibliography for further study
• Posting exams-related material
• In-class practice
• Home-assignments
• Discussion

1.  

Evaluation Methods:

Students’ evaluation includes the following:

• • Mandatory assignments
  • Final exams 
  • Final grade = 60% exams + 40% assignments

1.  

 

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