Our aim is simple – to empower students to produce their ultimate dissertation. We do this is by providing students with a first-of-its kind, online learning lab – a space to learn by doing,.
This is not simply a course, it’s a guide that will lead you through the research journey and writing your dissertation. In fact, it is more than a guide – it is a lab. It is a space for you to test your thinking, develop your ideas, and even create a draft of your thesis.
In addition to the practical course, students also receive access to:
The developers of this course, Dr. Gabrielle Ford and Prof. Craig Blewett have more than 50 years combined experience lecturing, researching, and supervising research projects all over the world.
Students are expected to put into practice what they have learned in each lesson, which results in them completing their dissertations by the end of the course.
Participants learn while experiencing the ACT approach to teaching which results in high levels of engagement and completion.
All students receive a certificate of completion that demonstrates their knowledge and understanding of research methods.
Learn on any device, whenever and wherever you want at the student’s pace.
The Thesis Lab course is ideal for students who are completing an undergraduate or Honours dissertation, or extended research project. Masters and Ph.D. students will also find this course useful as it brings together all aspects of the research journey into a single space. The course assumes no prior understanding of research methods.
This course is structured to parallel the research process, from planning the project to writing up. Three core phases of this process are identified: Plan, Do, and Report. In addition, an extra phase at the beginning and end of the process has been added, giving the student some introductory skills before they start, and another at the end that helps them to assess their work. Each lesson and each section concludes with a multiple choice quiz, as well as one or more activities that are designed to put the theory learned into practice, whilst at the same time developing their research project.
Section 1 – Getting Started
Each lesson in this section gives some useful tools that will help students to get started with their research project and will also be of help throughout their research project.
– because everyone, including you, has done it before.
– that will keep you, your supervisor, and your (current or future) boss, happy.
– so that you can use them for more than just your literature review.
– expanding your reading list by using what you’ve already got.
– keeping a record of everything you’ve done and thought so that you can explain what you did, how you did it, and why you did it.
– providing support for your arguments and making sure that you give credit where credit is due.
– making sure you don’t end up in trouble by giving credit to research you build your research on.
Section 2 – Planning Your Project
Each lesson in this section provides some useful tools to help the student develop a research plan that will demonstrate that the planned study is both feasible and worth doing.
– understanding what makes for a good research question.
– making sure that you do no harm to your participants, yourself or your university during your research study.
– choosing a research question that meets your supervisor’s expectations and keeps you motivated.
– phrasing your research question correctly and in accordance with academic requirements.
– understanding the different types of data and their impact on the feasibility of your research study.
– understanding different data collection and analysis methods available and their impact on the feasibility of your study.
– selecting and justifying the most appropriate methods for your project.
– that will convince your supervisor that your proposed study is worth doing and that you have a clear understanding of the topic and overall research process.
Section 3 – Doing Your Research
Each lesson in this section gives tools and tips on how to actually do the research according to the Research Proposal or Research Plan.
– crafting a comprehensive, coherent, critical and captivating review of what is known, and what is unknown, about your research topic.
– from formulating a hypothesis to distributing the questionnaire, and everything in between.
– using appropriate statistical tests rigorously to obtain valid and reliable answers to your research question.
– developing, testing and conducting interviews to collect qualitative data.
– using appropriate qualitative analysis methods to develop a trustworthy answer to your research question.
Section 4 – Writing Up
This section focuses on getting down to actually writing up a research report. It provides tips and templates that can be used as exemplars and adapted to suit specific topic and/or university requirements.
– a template for telling the story of your research journey in a coherent way.
– understanding the difference between results and analysis and how to present your findings.
– interpreting your results so that you can answer your research question.
– helping the reader understand why your research should matter to them.
– it’s the first chapter of your report but the last one you write because it’s a summary of the work you are going to present in the other chapters of your report.
Section 5 – Finishing Touches
In this final section, students are given some useful tools to use before they submit their final dissertation, to help them to submit their best work.
– a formula that will help you to summarise 10 000 words or more into 250 words.
– in the best way possible to impress your marker and even possibly earn some bonus marks.
– helping you to identify areas that you can improve on before you submit your work.
– it’s time to celebrate the end of a long journey, but what’s next.
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