Reaserch Methods and Professional Practice Module
Objectives:.
- Appraise the professional, legal, social, cultural and ethical issues that affect computing professionals.
- Appraise the principles of academic investigation, applying them to a research topic in the applicable computing field.
- Evaluate critically existing literature, research design and methodology for the chosen topic, including data analysis processes.
- Produce and evaluate critically a research proposal for the chosen topic.
- Introduction to Research Methods. The Scientific Investigation and Ethics in Computing.
- Understanding why ethics are important and how they may relate to an area of research and a professional practice.
- Differentiating between inductive and deductive reasoning.
- Learned the difference between deduction and induction in inferences.
- Explored research ethics.
- For the literature review, I have chosen the "implement machine learning tools and/or techniques in crime prediction" topic.
- Research Questions, the Literature Review and the Research Proposal
- Examining the characteristics that make up a suitable research topic.
- Exploring rational and creative methods for formulating a research idea.
- Identifying means of transforming research ideas into crafted research questions and proposal.
- Followed the literature review guide questions to support the planning, revising and refining of the first summative assessment.
- Explored the importance of research questions as well as the methods to develop them and constructing a research proposal.
- Introduced to the concepts of literature reviews, their purpose and techniques to evaluate them.
- Methodology and Research Methods
- Understanding the different research methods.
- Knowing which data collection methods are related to each method of research.
- Exploring which of these would be suited to an area of research.
- Indroduced to the Exploratory and Conclusive types of research design.
- Explored the three main types of research methods: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods.
- Reviewed data collection techniques for qualitative research such as surveys and interviews.
- Case Studies, Focus Groups and Observations
- Understanding how to carry out data collection methods.
- Knowing which method would be suitable, if any, for an investigation.
- Gained a deeper understanding of the advantages and drawbacks of case studies, focus groups, and observation methods.
- Submitted an initial outline for the summative assessment of Unit 7.
Feedback:
- The content looks focused. For the actual Literature Review itself, don’t break the content down into too
many sub-headers. Use an Introduction, Main Discussion and conclusion and focus on looking at the
strengths and limitations of the research that you are discussing.
- Interviews, Survey Methods, and Questionnaire Design
- Understanding how interviews and surveys fit into research and whether either or both might be useful for an investigation.
- Understanding how pre- and post-testing can be used in research.
- Designing a questionnaire to obtain the responses you will need for your investigation.
- Understanding how to analyse the data obtained.
- Explored new concepts such as pre- and post-testing.
- Understood the different types of research questions and which one fit best in which scenario.
- Looked at the survey data collection technique and what considerations to have in mind when using them.
- Quantitative Methods - Descriptive and Inferential Statistics
- Understanding and applying descriptive statistics.
- Identifying the different levels of measurement.
- Producing measures of location and spread.
- Learned different techniques for designing questionnaires.
- Understood how quantitative methods investigate relationships between variables that are numerically measured.
- Inferential Statistics and Hypothesis Testing
- Understanding inferential statistics.
- Introduction to the basic principle of probability.
- Introduction to hypothesis testing.
- Critically evaluated literature on machine learning implementation.
- Looked at the summary measures such as the mean and standard deviation, and how to interpret them.
- Performed hypothesis testing on various datasets.
Feedback / Positives:
- A solid and consistent piece of writing.
- With an appropriate academic context.
- That reflects the assignment title.
Feedback / Points for development:
- Use more than one citation per paragraph, [which has happened in several instances].
- This will allow a more critical approach to content.
- And a more critical context overall.
- Data Analysis and Visualisation
- Understanding the different types of analysis and their usefulness.
- Understanding the different charts available to present various types of data.
- Explored different methods for presenting and analysing data such as charts and graphs.
- Performed summary measures on various datasets.
- Learned the steps required to perform inference starting with the hypothesis,
setting the criteria, performing tests and getting to a decision.
- Validity and Generalisability in Research
- Understanding how validity, generalisability and reliability affect investigations.
- Learning how to analyse and present results to answer research questions.
- Explored reliability and validity in research and methods to confirm them.
- Performed data visualisation exercises in Excel.
- Learning about research reporting/writing.
- Understanding the various sections in a dissertation and how to approach them.
- Explored the structure of dissertations and writing requirements.
- Developed a research proposal based on chosen methodology.
- Discussed ethical issues in research.
- Project Management and Managing Risk
- Understand the concept of project management and life cycles.
- Explore risk, uncertainty, assumptions, and constraints.
- Learn how to create risk and change management plans.
- Followed Agile framework to understand project management.
- Learned how to construct risk management plans for projects.
- Recognised the importance of maintaining an e-portfolio.
▼SWOT/Professional Skills Matrix/Action Plan▼