Vår 2025

SVF-3618 Project design - 5 stp

The course is administrated by

Institutt for teknologi og sikkerhet

Type of course

The course is reserved for students with admission to: Online Master in Contemporary Risk and Crisis Management (CRCM). May not be taken as singular course.

Course contents

The course provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental aspects associated with designing and conducting effective social science research. Research design involves making important decisions about research aims and strategies, methodology, data collection and analysis, ethics and ensuring trustworthy and well-grounded conclusions. The course addresses essential core elements in the process of designing and conducting a research project, including selection of the research problem, formulating the research purpose and research question(s) associated with it/them, choosing the logic of inquiry, elaborating on relevant concepts and theory, advancing methods and procedures for data collection and analysis. It aims to familiarize students with the challenges of designing research and equip them with the skills and knowledge necessary for writing a master thesis. As part of the course, each student’s major task will be to produce a detailed and comprehensive description of the master's thesis research design. The course involves a series of assignments where students focus on different components of research design, intending to contribute directly to the step-by-step development of the master thesis project description.

Objective of the course

Knowledge:

The student …

has a sound understanding of research design principles and the underlying logic of the process
can distinguish among different types of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods designs, their appropriate use as well as the strengths and weaknesses and the critical issues when designing a study
has in-depth understanding of the key elements of research design and applies those for constructing own research
gains a comprehensive understanding of research ethics and good research practice

Skills:

The student …

can discuss the context and significance of a specific research problem, formulate a relevant research topic and provide a compelling argument for it
demonstrates the ability to clearly articulate the main objective(s) of one’s own research by formulating analytical, researchable, and original research questions
can identify and integrate key concepts and theories into a viable conceptual framework, ensuring that gathered data is pertinent and useful for addressing the questions posed in a master thesis
can pinpoint gaps in the current literature that the master thesis aims to fill, summarize relevant literature related to the chosen research topic, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of existing research and produce a concise summary of the literature review on the chosen research topic
can elaborate on different research methods used to collect data and the analytical techniques proposed to interpret the collected data and justify why these are appropriate for addressing the questions posed in a master thesis
can discuss the significance of the proposed research and its potential practical contributions
shall be able to both identify and address the ethical issues involved in the conduct of a chosen research project
can assess the risks that may be encountered in designing and implementing research

General competence:

The student …

has in-depth understanding of the fundamentals of research design
can develop and refine a coherent and viable master thesis research design and present it to the general audiences

Language of instruction

Language of instruction: English

The required written coursework can be written / presented in Norwegian

Language of examination: English

Exam can be answered in Norwegian

Teaching methods

Pre-recorded lectures, individual and group assignments.