Research Methods
Online Diary
Course Instructor: Dr. Zubair Shaikh
Prepared by: Faisal Arshad (M-9656)

Week # 1 - 9th September, 2006

Introduction to Research Methods

In the first week, we discuss what the meaning of research is and how to do research. We define the process of doing research by highlighting the key areas to look for any research. The research process model consist of clarification of the topics, literature review, choosing the research approach and strategy, collecting and analyzing the required data and drawing conclusion of the whole process.

Initially we have certain objective / goals to achieve (i.e. Research Idea) with a less understanding, then we apply some research approaches to it and have some results. The result is the much clear form of what our objective was. We again go through the same process with the more clarified objective and thus collecting more and more information and analyze it. Following figure illustrate the process.

Research Process

Collecting information and evaluating the source of the information is the essential part of the research process. We can refine the topic of our research while collecting information related to given topic. Since, initially we don’t have a clear understanding of our research topic and over the course of research it may be possible or relevant to refine the topic of the research.

At the end of the week, we have given an assignment to come up with a research idea and give a presentation.

Teacher's Presentation Material:

What is a Research Process? (Presentation in ppt format)

Week # 2 - 16th September, 2006

Research Ideas

In this week, several students gave presentation for the research ideas. There are 6 research ideas which presentation takes place in the class.

Research Ideas

1. Productivity increase if we have quite time in the organization

2. Comparison between existing education system to standardized the education system

3. Future of Internet or web application

4. Effective Project Management Practices

5. Mobile Multimedia Communication

Week # 3 - 23th September, 2006

Research Approaches

We discuss how to formulate the research ideas by converting them into Hypothesis. Hypothesis is the statement that can be proven true or false. Normally, Hypothesis is generalized and if it is not then its exceptions.

Dr. Zubair Sheikh took one idea which was “Quite time can increase the productivity of the organization”. He then converts that idea into Hypothesis and underlines the key elements like variables in the hypothesis, type of variables, and function of variable.

In order to test the hypothesis, we measure our parameter as Qualitative or Quantitative. Qualitative measures are hard to perform and need historical data and domain specialist so we need to convert those measures to Quantitative measure because quantitative measures can be done using different statistical methods.

At the end of the lecture, Dr. Zubair Shiekh also give us an introduction to Critical Thinking and Reading. Critical Thinking is a rational examination of ideas, inferences, principles, conclusion while Critical Reading is an Active, intellectual process where the reader uses interpretation and objective assessment of written material.

Teacher's Presentation Material:

Critical Thinking and Reading (Presentation in ppt format)

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Online Diary by Faisal Arshad. Email address: farshad@folio3.com; seifer_rule@yahoo.com. Mobile #: 0345-2155131