Welcome to Research methods!

Things you need to do before starting the course:

1. Connect with your student cohort. If you don’t have one yet, set up a Twitter account and introduce yourself. Use #UOWResM hashtag so the rest of your cohort can find you. Example: “I’m Irit from Wollongong Australia excited to start #UOWResM”
2. Check out:
   1. Course aims and objectives
   2. Study schedule

Study tips

There are a few things you should know about the research methods course:

1. Suggested study time: This is an asynchronous course which means you can participate at times which are convenient for your own schedule. The course is divided into six sessions spread over six weeks. You should aim to spend approximately 3-4 hours per day at times which suite your own schedule. However, as an open course you can sip and dip participating in the topics or activities you find interesting. The time you will need to successfully complete the activities will vary according to your own experience in social research. We estimate you will need about 30 hours of study time to complete the course. Learners participating in this course for formal academic credit will need to allocate an additional 10 hours required for completion of the final assignment.
2. International time zones: OERu courses typically register students across 24 time zones. You should study this course in your own time zone. For example, carry out the instructions for Tuesday on your Tuesday, not the time zone of your facilitators.
3. Using social media technologies: If you are new to using social media technologies, we provide detailed tutorials and instructions to help you set up your own personal learning environment during the orientation session. We recommend that you establish your personal learning environment before the course commences. Blog’s are optional, however, learners who are interested in an open badge, certificate of participation or formal assessment for course credit will need to create a personal course blog (or you can use your existing blog).
4. Information overload: At times the aggregated feed can generate a large number of posts. You are not expected to read everything. Read what is current when you log in and follow the links which you find interesting. After a few days you will identify participants with similar interests and you can then follow these posters in the feed.
5. Learn by doing and sharing: Most of all, have fun! We are changing the world for the better by returning to the core value of sharing knowledge in education.