Content, progress and pedagogy of the module

Objectives 

• To provide students with an understanding of the main components of a research project including the linkages between problem identification, research questions, methodological choices, and research designs.  

• To give students further insight into a variety of social scientific research strategies, including qualitative and quantitative research designs and methods within the field of international relations.  
• To enable students to understand and reflect critically upon various types of research designs.  
• To enable students to select and describe methodological choices and research designs, and to communicate their choices. 

Content 

Based on knowledge and understanding of the main components of a research project, students will explore various methodological choices including concrete techniques of data selection, collection, and analysis in qualitative and quantitative research. Focus will be on discussing quality criteria in the contexts of both qualitative and quantitative research designs in order to approach academic research designs critically. Furthermore, students will gain insight into the use of digital tools for qualitative and quantitative data collection, analysis, and referencing, including considerations regarding ethics and data protection. 

Learning objectives

Knowledge

• the linkages between problem identification, research questions, methodological choices, and research designs 
• qualitative and quantitative social scientific methods within the field of international relations 

Skills

• can identify and delimit a research problem and create a research strategy suitable for answering the problem statement 
• can apply their knowledge to select theories that serve the analytical purpose and at the same time remain critical to these theories 
• can make well-founded methodological choices 
• can assess existing research in the field of international relations critically. 

Competences

• Can structure and clearly communicate knowledge obtained 
• Can critically reflect on and argue for choice of theory, research design and data selection  
• Can reflect on ethics and data protection in diverse settings, online as well as offline 

   

Type of instruction

The module consists of lectures, exercises, and student contributions. 

Exam

Exams