Although there are some nice insights to grasp, the focus and practical means is totally missing. There is no clear objective for the course and it's not going make you to either know the theories considering research methods nor is going to make you able to use them solely by following the course.

I got to learn a lot about various research methods which i did not know previously. The timing of presentation of various ideas was excellent. Reviewing classmates was a good learning experience.

It was a great course.Dr.Simon and Dr.Yenn did a great work in summarising and preparing great etivities.Dr.Sandra Halperin's research methods and views will stay for a long time with me.

This is wonderful course especially for research scholars, one suggestion is instead of giving articles from books, please provide a PPT which will be more effective ! thank you for wonderful session.

thanks a lot for this course i think that it will help me to progress in research practice

and to publish researches and to learn how to find answers to burning questions in my mind

The course is weak, we have a lot of discussion and opinions with no much guidline and tools.

The readings are specific to social sciences, it should be clear in the title.

I am a doctoral student. Our research often loses the purpose; however, if we think about the purpose of the literature review and the research question as this course "Understanding Research Methods", we will no longer be lost. It was a very good course that could be used for the actual research method. Thank you.

It was a perfect course for understanding the research methods. It helps me a lot, thanks to the University of London and Coursera for providing this opportunity to enhance our Knowledge in research.

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

I love the course content and time flexibility of this course. The assignments are very good and especially the open discussion and review processes are great. Overall I like this kind of course.

This was my very first course online, and I enjoyed it a lot. I was very surprised by the teaching approach, through interviews of several professors -- each presenting his/her own perspective on the respective topics -- and I found that a very judicious way to avoid the "death by PowerPoint". The transliteration of the content of the interview ("karaoke-like") below the screen is also a very helpful tool. Thanks also for the reading materials; I'll keep them as good references.

All in one, that was worth the experience!

Warm thanks to you all!

-- Stéphane (Bangkok)

Understanding Research Methods is an interesting basic course regarding research, clarifies many queries of students, academicians and researchers.

Didn't like the course though did only one week. In the first week you are supposed to write a research proposal. Though there is a lot of talk on what research is, no actual advice is given on how to write a sound research statement. What's more, with no knowledge on how to do it, you are supposed to assess the works of your peers. I doubt that inexperienced in research beginners will provide valuable feedback - at least I would never do it if I hadn't been quite experienced in that. The second week is devoted to the discussion of the importance of literature review. Isn't that obvious?

I do not find almost anything valuable in this course. It's a bunch of random interviews without any clear learning process. Completing whole course can be done in 30 minutes.

it did not add any value to existing knowledge.

Good Day,

This is my first Coursera ever! I am working on a course titled Understanding Research Methodology and I have to say that I'm fully enjoying it as it is very well presented, very user friendly, and above that the videos and assignments are of great quality and thus benefit. I was surprised that it was so easy to go through yet so rewarding in terms of gained outcome, and i'm still in Week 1!

I know I might be a bit over enthusiastic about Coursera as a newly joined member, yet I do value such great tools that enables us to grasp knowledge, share ideas, and get connected and interact with thousands of members via a virtual platform that resembles real life lectures.

I cannot wait to finish this course and take more courses simply for the sake of acquiring knowledge, not only in the fiend of research methodology but in other interesting fields as well.

I would like to Thank all mentors, especially Maryam Mahdavipour who has been fully and continuously responsive to my questions. Her amazing attitude was key in making my first course go smooth and be of great value.

The world is indeed a nutshell, this is what Coursera has shown me so far, and I'm sure more knowledge and exciting learning experiences is yet to come.

Thank you Coursera and the University of London and the mentors for such an inspiring course and also thanks to Dr. Noora Fetais from Qatar University for advising us to enroll in this course in my Ph.D. program. You all are helping me and fellow colleagues to set the right tone for our successful journey in research.

Thank you

Manal Mansour

In terms of delivery, the course delivery was very simple, critical and relevant. The course content was very engaging as it included interviews with graduate students and professors alike who are doing their researches. Quite fittingly, I commend the creators of this course for recognizing the fact that most online courses on research methods out there focus on having a linear tackling of lesson topics. For this course, it stressed the key issues and reflections of individuals who are doing the actual rudiments of the thing we call "research". More importantly, this course was also critical and relevant in many respects as it allowed us to have some write-ups about the topics without requiring us to go through many readings. It is in this sense that I would say that it its relevant--concise and direct in its approach, the instructors have seen to it that what they are to discuss will be the things which new comers to the research endeavor might ask.

Kudos to the team! And my warmest regards to all of you! =D

Although it may seem a simple course, and it is focused on social sciences, it accomplishes what it purposes and can be tried for students of every area. It helps the learners to develop necessary skills in research, reflecting on the pertinence of a research question, the relevance of the literature review, the approaches the inquirer can use to conform his or her investigation, and the importance of time management. It contains interesting interviews with professionals researchers, who contribute for the learning process from different perspectives and experiences. An enriching course!

It is a very good introductory course on research methods. It has deepened my understanding of research methods. It has helped me to understand the role of literature review and research design. I also like its unique way of doing this course. Instead of lengthy lecturing, the course presents a few videos interviewing different researchers, having them talk about a certain topic. I've heard different views on the same topic, each of which makes a point. It has definitely helped me to look at the same issue from different perspectives.

Hello...I'm so blessed to have this platform ,it really helped me alot in my learning phase as well as in my research .Thank you for the coursera team to provide this opportunity to me .I really thanks to my online teachers who worked very effectively and prepared such an informative videos for our betterment.I will stay in contact with this platform and very special thanks to University of London ,SOAS for this course.

I am glad to have finished this course in a short span of time and have learned so many things about research. Thank you so much to all my generous classmates who have shown their interest in helping me gain knowledge through their feedback to my submitted tasks. Kudos to all the researchers around the world! Together let's contribute to build a better society for the future generation through our researches.

This course has helped me to build a mini proposal, for a paper I've been thinking about for two years. I owe the course its encouragement and giving me the 'push' to write something on this subject. I will always remember a sentence from the last video: "Research isn't something one does between 9 and 5. It's something you wake up in the small hours of the morning thinking about."

I am really impressed with the opinion and examples from different scholars on each topic of each lesson of the week. This gives me a better grasp on understanding Research Methodology Clearer which I couldn't even attain when I was in my unstandardized college in Cambodia. I'd definitely recommend this course to my fellow and junior classmates who wish to study research.

El curso es muy amigable y me agradó la modalidad de entrevistas a investigadores para que hablaran desde su experiencia, además las lecturas propuestas son muy útiles y fáciles de comprender. Realizar y recibir retroalimentación fue valioso, sugeriría en este sentido, mayor claridad en las indicaciones para enviar tareas, ya que los trabajos variaron mucho en calidad.

Excelente curso. Me pareció muy completo ya que nos da un panorama muy detallado de lo que significa la investigación y los métodos y enfoques a seguir. Además, la utilización de videos explicativos facilitan el aprendizaje y la retención de la información. Adicional, las lecturas complementan los videos y hacen que de comprenda con mayor facilidad los conceptos.