Chevron Left
Back to Understanding Research Methods

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Understanding Research Methods by University of London

4.6
stars
8,822 ratings

About the Course

This MOOC is about demystifying research and research methods. It will outline the fundamentals of doing research, aimed primarily, but not exclusively, at the postgraduate level. It places the student experience at the centre of our endeavours by engaging learners in a range of robust and challenging exercises befitting SOAS, University of London's status as a research-intensive university and its rich research heritage. The course will appeal to those of you who require an understanding of research approaches and skills, and importantly an ability to deploy them in your studies or in your professional lives. In particular, this course will aid those of you who have to conduct research as part of your postgraduate studies but do not perhaps have access to research methods courses, or for those of you who feel you would like additional support for self-improvement. There is no expectation that you already have a research topic or project in mind when you begin the course. No prior knowledge or experience in research is required to take this course and as such, the course is for everyone. This MOOC draws on a wealth of existing course material developed to support research training across SOAS, University of London and particularly drawing from the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy (CISD). In 2015, the course was nominated for the prestigious Guardian University Award for its innovative approach to online learning. Participation in or completion of this online course will not confer academic credit for University of London programmes....

Top reviews

SC

Aug 1, 2020

This is truly a great lesson for a biggner to learn and understand what is about "Research". The 4 -week lessons helped me to build a clear structure for the procedure of a research purpose.

AB

Sep 9, 2019

very good course. The last e-activity was proposal preparation. It will be good if they add something about sampling in reading materials. Very good experience for me.....I will recommend this course

Filter by:

2551 - 2575 of 2,767 Reviews for Understanding Research Methods

By Pham V D

•

May 20, 2025

good

By Soumya.K.R

•

Apr 17, 2025

Good

By B I R

•

Feb 20, 2025

Good

By P C .

•

Jan 19, 2025

Good

By 2303C 5

•

Oct 26, 2023

good

By Mohammed G

•

Sep 4, 2023

good

By Ramisetti s k (

•

Dec 24, 2021

Good

By Ghazi K

•

Jul 8, 2021

good

By Harshad Y

•

Apr 7, 2021

good

By Geoffrey A

•

Mar 4, 2021

good

By Mahmoud M

•

Feb 11, 2021

لطيف

By Happy A

•

Nov 4, 2020

good

By Nivetha. G

•

Aug 23, 2020

Good

By Ravindra J P

•

Jul 22, 2020

Good

By Mostofa K

•

Jul 18, 2020

Good

By Rehan N

•

Jun 10, 2020

Good

By Ankit G

•

May 27, 2020

nice

By Ismail O

•

Nov 14, 2019

Good

By Maureen M S

•

Nov 17, 2025

N/A

By Dr. A K

•

Oct 14, 2022

👍

By Erick C

•

Apr 2, 2017

ok

By Phan T N ( D

•

Jan 28, 2025

w

By Ujjawal D

•

Jul 22, 2022

t

By Dr. V S

•

Oct 4, 2021

O

By Emily W

•

Nov 29, 2020

I wanted to give this course 5 stars because the content is really good, all the reading materials were incredibly useful and I enjoyed the videos and was able to take a lot from them. Unfortunately the forums aren't used as discussion forums - instead of any discussion about the materials there are just streams of requests for people to review submissions, which shouldn't be needed as the course is structured so that each time you make one submission you review three others, also because the e-tivities are only peer reviewed the quality and usefulness of the feedback is mostly not good, out of 4 submissions I have had 10 peer reviews so far and only one of them followed the advice to focus on what was good (but didn't give any suggestions for improvement) and the rest have either been single word responses (eg 'good' or 'fantastic'), despite the recommendation being at least 50 words, some had simply given information about tangentially related topics (a bunch of data about elementary school reading interventions, and a summary of some of the information from one of the other articles which I hadn't been responding to as the task clearly and in bold stated 'or'). This lack of meaningful interaction with anyone left me feeling disheartened and that I was working in a void. I think the moderators should be keeping the discussion forums on track, and that some feedback from the course teachers, even if only for the last submission would make a big difference. I didn't but the certificate because I didn't think that the assessment method for the course was rigourous enough to confer any value to having passed.