Subject to approval of the Head of School of Health Sciences.

Contact Person

Isabel Jamieson

Email isabel.jamieson@canterbury.ac.nz

Assessment

Assignment 1: The Research Question - location and justification.

Instructions:
Identify the research area of interest for allocated group. From the literature review, demonstrate the refinement process and the justification for the research question. i.e. what gap in the literature will it address? Locate the research question against an appropriate research methodology, with the rationale for this choice (1-2 paragraphs)

You are required to:
• Use the APA 6th Edition referencing
• Attach your literature search as an appendix
• Submit the work, as a WORD document, to ‘Turn-it-in’ via the HLTH464 UC LEARN on or before the due date.


Assignment 2: The Group Project
In order to pass the project, your group is required to write up a project report to the satisfaction of your supervisor.  As this is a group project and the emphasis is on working collaboratively as a group, the overall achievement will be a group mark.

Criteria for write up will include evidence of your:
(1) Ability to locate and evaluate information
(2) Capacity to think critically
(3) Ability to formulate a research plan, to carry out a field study (data may already be available) and to analyze the results
(4) Ability to recognize and respond to the ethical issues in such research
(5) Capability of weighing, evaluating and integrating new information
(6) Skill in oral and written communication sensitive to the understanding of the individual or group
(7) Capacity to work together

You will be working in a group of about 4-5 students, for eight weeks on a research project for an academic in the School of Health Sciences.  

Each group will have a supervisor from the School of Health Sciences. Your group will be allocated a project in the first teaching block. Group members will arrange to meet the academic who will define the area of interest.  Your project is intended to be a practical and useful assessment of a real problem or issue in health or health care for which you will work to find a solution.

You may have access to confidential information:  please remember you are responsible for maintaining confidentiality. You should check out what ethical approval the project has and your responsibilities to maintain ethical practices.

Although your supervisor will act as a resource person, you and other members of the group will be expected to take responsibility for planning and carrying out the project.  An aim of the project work is to develop your ability to work together as a group.  From within your group, please elect two conveners during the first week; one to be responsible for liaising with your supervisor, and the other to co-ordinate the overall writing up of the report.  Regular meetings should be arranged with your supervisor, who will also be able to guide your timely completion of the project and advise you to help overcome any obstacles.  

Research Output
The last teaching block, 27 – 29 April, will be available for you as a group to complete writing up your project and plan your presentation for assessment 3.  The completed project should be submitted in both electronic and hard copy form to your supervisor.  


Assignment 3: The Presentation to Community of Interest
An important part of your assessment will be the oral presentation of your project work to your community of interest, at a time and location that they identify.  The academic concerned and other interested people should be invited to attend; your group will be responsible for scheduling and deciding whom to invite. Please arrange the time in consultation with your supervisor, and circulate the invitation by Week 8 (at end of Block 2). You will all need to share the work of preparing visual material and talking about your findings.  The whole session including discussion should take no longer than one hour, so you should aim to present the findings within 40 minutes.

Textbooks / Resources

Recommended Reading

Creswell, John W; Research design : qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches ; 4th ed; SAGE Publications, 2014.

Gerrish, Kate,1955- , Gerrish, Kate, Lacey, Anne; The research process in nursing ; 6th ed. ; Blackwell Pub, 2010.

Richardson-Tench, Marilyn et al; Research in nursing : evidence for best practice ; Edition five; Cengage Learning, 2014.

Tolich, Martin. , Davidson, Carl; Getting started : an introduction to research methods ; Pearson, 2011.

There is no set text for this course. Rather, students are expected to access appropriate resources to develop their knowledge of research methodologies. Besides the library, the universities (Otago; Canterbury; Victoria; Auckland; AUT) and polytechnics (EIT; WINTEC) with postgraduate Masters Health programmes usually have their theses collections on line.  The design chapters will illustrate the application of various methodologies to the research process. These are excellent sources for research application.  

SAGE Research Methods database, University of Canterbury Library.
http://www.statisticsdonewrong.com/
NZResearch http://research.digitalnz.org/ has quite a few theses and journal articles that might be useful secondary sources.

Indicative Fees

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.