Research tool kit/Epidemiology

Course

URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2024-2025/P_BRTKEPI

Course Objective

All the steps needed to write a (clinically) relevant, high-quality, and successful research proposal will be covered in this course, through lectures and work groups, resulting in a written research proposal to be presented in a video pitch. After successfully completing this course 1. You are able to search for relevant research in existing databases (e.g., PubMed) 2. You can critically evaluate research proposals and existing research, specifically methodology and implications 3. You can formulate a specific research question and hypothesis 4. You can describe the societal and scientific relevance of (proposed) research 5. You show a good understanding and critical awareness of the most important research designs, measures, and concepts that are used within the field of clinical, developmental, and neuropsychology 6. You will know the most important aspects of ethics involved in psychological research 7. You can incorporate your knowledge of different research designs, statistics, and ethics into the research proposal 8. You are able to pitch your research proposal and answer critical questions

Course Content

Through various online knowledge clips, you will learn about the purpose, scope, and limitations of different research methods and designs, such as clinical trials, longitudinal studies, and cross-sectional studies from the perspective of clinical, developmental, and neuropsychology. Additionally, you will get acquainted with the practical and ethical aspects of conducting research in psychology and the writing of a data-analysis plan. Additionally, there will be weekly online Q&A sessions, which you are strongly encouraged to actively participate in, as they give a unique opportunity to discuss aspects of your research proposal. Your acquired knowledge will be tested in weekly canvas quizzes that count towards your final grade. There will be weekly homework assignments, which will prepare you for the weekly workgroups. In the workgroup sessions, you will work on different aspects of the research proposal, through individual and group assignments. You will practice with making informed and substantiated decisions regarding your research, and critically looking at the scientific literature. The first five workgroups will be synchronous (mandatory), and the last two workgroups will be asynchronous (mandatory). A large part of the workgroups is based on peer feedback because evaluating researcher and researcher proposals critically is one of the course's learning goals. You will, of course, be supervised in this and all students will receive individual feedback as well.

Teaching Methods

Lectures and tutorials

Method of Assessment

The assessment consists of the online canvas quizzes (10%), homework assignments (10%), a video pitch (20%) and a research proposal (60%). The research proposal and the combined grade need to be equal to or higher than 5.5 to pass the course. You are allowed a resit for your research proposal and video pitch when they are graded insufficient (

Literature

All learning materials will be published on canvas using scientific articles and knowledge clips.

Recommended background knowledge

Succesful completion of Statistical and Methodology courses (Research Methods 1 and 2). This course will build upon and integrate this pre-existing knowledge by following all the steps of the empirical cycle. This course will also give you the tools for writing your bachelor’s thesis
Academic year1/09/2431/08/25
Course level6.00 EC

Language of Tuition

  • English

Study type

  • Bachelor