Research Project IV (Thesis Preparation)

• Learn to prepare for and plan a thesis.
• Start any time, work at your own pace
• Be guided by highly qualified and experienced academic tutors

This is a unique course developed to expand a person's knowledge of research methodology; for students, writers, academics and entrepeneurs.

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. The Problem Statement
   • Introduction
   • What is a problem
   • Selecting a topic
   • Structure of a problem statement
   • How does a problem statement relate to quantitative and qualitative research
   • Referencing and reference types
2. The Literature Review Part One
   • What is a literature review
   • Relating your literature review to the problem statement
   • Types of literature
   • Collecting information
   • Finding literature: text books, journal articles, indexes, abstracts, internet
3. The Literature Review Part Two
   • Critical reading
   • Literatire review structure
   • Writing
   • Verbs
   • Quotations
   • Presentation of work
4. The Hypothesis
   • What is a hypothesis
   • Definitions
   • Scientific method
   • Structuring a hypothesis
   • What is not a hypothesis
   • Null hypothesis
   • Correlation vs cause and effect
   • Occam's razor
5. The Method
   • Introduction
   • Structuring your research method
   • Research strategy
   • Data collection
   • Quantitative data
   • Qualitative data
   • Data sampling
   • Sampling methods
   • Research integrity
6. Data Collection
   • Introduction
   • Primary and secondary sources of data
   • Quantitative data
   • Qualutative data
   • Data collection
   • Literature review
   • Key informants
   • Experimental
   • Correlation
   • What is correlation
   • Questionnaires, Surveys and Tests
   • Interviews
   • Documentation
   • Observation
   • Focus groups
   • Case studies
   • Combination and triangulation
7. Research Proposal
   • Introduction
   • Outline
   • Cover Page, abstract, introduction, problem statement, hypothesis, context background, literature survey, research methodology
   • Time schedule, budget, terminology, resource list, appendix
   • Academic writing
8. Thesis Writing
   • Nature of thesis structure
   • Thesis structure guidelines: different types
9. Ethics
   • Ethics of collecting data
   • Human research
   • Non human research
   • Ethics committee
   • Categories of research
10. Where To From Here
    • Pitfalls
    • Finalising a thesis submission

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Construct a problem statement
• Identify related literature resources which correspond to ‘the problem statement’
• Understand nature of hypotheses and methods of hypothesis development
• Develop initial method for your research project
• Identify the data sources for the research project
• Complete a Research Proposal
• Understand how to structure a thesis
• Complete an Ethics Form to gain approval for research
• Write a thesis draft.

Credentials

ACS is an Organisational Member of the Institute of Training and Occupational Learning.

Member of Study Gold Coast Education Network.

ACS Global Partner - Affiliated with colleges in seven countries around the world.

ACS is a long-term member of IARC. A non-profit quality management organisation servicing schools, colleges and institutions in the tertiary education sector.

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