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

Very good in some ways, very poor in others, so a three.

I learned a lot. I did the reading, I did the exercises and read around the topic. So from my point of view worthwhile. On the other hand I kept getting requests to pay £39 pounds for a certificate. Why not, it presumably says that you have completed a University of London course, which has to be a good thing. I don't need a certificate, as I'm taking the course for my own personal study needs.

However, it became obvious to me that many other people were cheating . It's not difficult at all and I suspect many people paying for the certificate have done little or no work at all. This means that the certificate is completely devalued. I was disappointed that both Coursera and the University of London (which is where both my degree and PGCE certificate are from) are prepared to put their names to something so valueless.

It was clear that there were other people who, like me, were using the course to learn - I learned a lot from reading their submissions, but I wonder how disappointed those people must feel knowing that others are failing to do the work.

Good and Bad. The course content is really basic, and I wish it went into greater depth and detail. For instance, the videos, instead of actually giving you an idea of HOW to do a literature review, just have researchers talking about the importance of a literature review, over and over. The videos weren't helpful at all. The course materials WERE a good source of information, however. If you are a self-starter, you'll get something out of the course.

My only other gripe, which I think is a huge problem with the course, is that the certificate doesn't state how much time you actually took to do the course. This is a problem for healthcare professionals that need continuing education hours.

The course was of great help. It provides valuable insights to engage in academic research. However, I rate it only with three starts because I think it is too basic for the complexity involved in real research. Also I think some ideas provided in the course could be better organized. For example, in week three, the topic was understood to be something like "Management Skills Applied to Research" but the material pointed to something totally different. All ideas presented were great, but I think it is just matter to clarify better the objectives in each week.

The organization of this course was very good. I liked the themes and their order. I thought the videos could have been longer and more substancial, but the reading were great. I got confused on one of the assignments in which the questions of the given chapter were supposed to be answer. There were 3. I must have misunderstood or have another file, because no one I read had such question and I got not so great reviews. I think this should be looked at. Either way, thank you for this opportunity!

Unfortunately the course info was not clear enough that it was aimed to social science area. Of course the student should be able to understand the ideas and adapt to any research area. Still it was a major disappointment. The videos included are kind of shallow, the text on the other hand are more robust and added to my knowledge. I wouldn't recommend this course for PhD students (you should already know this things by now!), but rather for undergraduate.

The course gives a brief insight on how a research may be conducted, I like how the videos are kept short and truly useful, however, I believe that for the reading parts, there should more assistance in helping course takers to better understand them as for instance by making some videos that aid us o better comprehend the content of the reading assignments especially that of E-tivity 3 as its of vital importance. Thanks!

The course seems fairly well planned with lots of free articles. The peer reviewed assignments provide opportunities to give and receive feedback. However, the instructions for E-tivity 3 gave instructions which confused many course participants (including myself). Perhaps clearer instructions would have made participants more likely to be able to meet the assignment deadline.

If you are new in research, the videos provide a general idea of what to expect during the research. The extra readings are good to go in-depth, but the peers-review is not worth it at all. People don't take the reviews seriously and some feedback is just worthless. Implementing feedback from the professors would be perfect.

The course materials were very informative and the peer activities are worth it. However, the lessons/videos are not in-depth and are mainly edited segments of interviews about general experiences of researchers. It could have been better if they had in-depth lectures that resemble a teacher-student relationship.

Nice course but lot of troubles are arising during the completion of this course. still i am unable to complete it and could not find out the reason. Once i got a message that my course is completed and i can get my certificate but now it says still assignment pending... i dont know how to deal with it.

The course is too brief. The first 2 weeks material was good, but the other half is weak and it left me with no real answers at all. This course made me understand what is the first stage of research, but the title is misleading since it does not actually talk about the different research methods.

Some parts were good but overall the course was lacking in its ability to add value. There were generic discussions. Week 3 was almost useless; had it not been for a good reading provided for an assignment, it was too basic.

Add some specificity in the course or name it Basics of Research Methods.

The course was short and like a mini introduction to research methods. I liked hearing from different experts and their views and opinions on the subject. I hoped for a more detailed course and in depth learning opportunity. I benefited from the course but it didn't meet my expectations.

This is basic course, suitable for undergrads, the spoken experience were great to share. kudos to authors, each exemplars, provide new perspective. provide deeper understanding of research methods. Formulation of hypothesis, aims, objectives, could have been more interesting. Thanks..

although the course is a good one to know about research at the beginner level. Yet considering the target audience may even be phd fellows like me, the course could have been a little more detailed or provided more readings like the ones on literature review.

Understand Research Methods is a good experience for me and I enjoyed this video lecture and this topic. The ability to survey and understanding, field of knowledge. Research to collaborate and individuals work their careers as research.

The course is very concise, and therefore can only be considered as a introduction and not to gain a deep understanding. Little interaction with mentors, and fellow students do not seem to put a lot of effort in grading each other.

It's great to understand more of research methods in application, but I wish there were more resources provided to supplement our study. In general, this is a good course for those who start thinking of doing research in the future

The teachers, as well as the way it is taught, are very innovative and integral. The main issue I had while learning was the social research focus it has. They should be more clear about it in the preview of the course.

I very much appreciated and enjoyed the course as well as i'm utterly grateful for giving me such an opportunity.Thank you so much.Hope the knowledge i achieved from the course that will help me in my career.

Nice way to teach people on how to go about a research in the initial phase. Very simple and basics steps were explained through the e-tivities. The reading material provided was also of good content quality.

Los textos y evaluaciones del curso son muy relevantes y ayudan a alcanzar el objetivo de aprender sobre Research Methods.Los videos no son muy coherentes con las lecturas.Recomiendo el curso por los textos.

The overall premise of the course is strong. Although I found the instructors and guest speakers extremely knowledgeable, quite a bit of the material was repetitive within in each week's video clip content.

The books introduced in the course were great and helped me to expand my perspective about doing research. But Interviews seemed a little sporadic to me, and I didn't manage to build a connection with them.

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