Research Project in Distance Education and eLearning (RPDEEL)
The cu Research Project in Distance Education and eLearning (RPDEEL) is designed to prepare the plan of the thesis to be developed. The PhD student develops the project in one of the knowledge areas of the Doctoral Programme, integrating and applying the research skills acquired and developed in the other curricular units. The participation in conferences oriented by internal and external teachers during the course, as well as the integration in research groups/communities of the I&D units involved, also constitute training opportunities for doctoral students. The research project is subject to public defence in specific examinations.
State of the Art; Research Questions; Hypotheses; Methodology; Data Analysis; Thesis Project; Research Ethics.
It is expected that, at the end of the UC, the doctoral student will be able to:
- Formulate a problem, the research questions/hypotheses and objectives.
- Substantiate the relevance of the problem.
- Characterize the state of the art of the research problematic, reviewing the literature and systematizing the knowledge in question.
- Select and justify the methods, techniques and instruments of data analysis.
- Define the data management plan of the Thesis Project.
- Describe the modes of data treatment and analysis.
- Develop a schedule for the work to be carried out.
- Explain the ethical issues to be respected.
Programmatic topics
- Problem and research questions or hypotheses, and respective objectives.
- Relevance of the problem, within the scope of DEEL taking into account the expansion of knowledge in the area.
- Literature review and systematization of knowledge.
- Methods, techniques and tools for data analysis appropriate to the search for an answer to the research problem.
- Procedures for data processing and analysis.
- Ethical issues to be respected in the course of research.
Brause, R. (2000). Writing Your Doctoral Dissertation. Routledge Falmer.
Anderson, T., & Kanuka, H. (2003). e-Research: Methods, Strategies, and Issues. Pearson Education.
Cooper, R., & Desir, C. (2010). Strategically reviewing the research literature in qualitative research. Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research, 4(2), 88-94.
Jankowski, N. W. (2009). E-Research: Transformations in Scholarly Practice. Routledge.
Simonson, M. (2005). Design-based research: Applications for Distance Education. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, Volume 7 (1).
The seminar is based on a plan of sessions for presentation by the doctoral students of the structuring aspects of the thesis project (TP). These sessions are guided by the seminary teachers chosen as supervisors of the elaboration of the thesis plan, in articulation with the activities carried out in the Advanced Seminars of Methodology I and II.
At the end of the semester, the resulting TP is discussed with an evaluation committee composed of two teachers of the doctoral programme and an external teacher, and is subject to public defence. The evaluation is based on the work done by the student during the seminar and on the evaluation committee's assessment of the TP.
The final assessment in this uc is expressed on a 0-20 scale based on:
(a) 50% for the thesis plan and work path in the PIEDEL uc;
b) 50% for the public discussion test.