KET 521E - Research Meth.for Urban Design

Course Objectives

The objective of the course is to make students define, plan, execute, and complete a research project, and understand the basic principles of scientific investigation and research process. Students will become familiar with alternative research strategies and a wide range of research methods in environmental researches from the simplest techniques to the complicated ones. This course will enable students to gain the skill of transforming a problem into a research problem, of discussing it and of preparing it as a report. While students designing their own research, they will comprehend fundamental characteristics of various data collecting and analyzing methods/techniques critically assess their strengths and weakness, select and use them.

Course Description

Concept of research; definition and types of quantitative and qualitative researches; phases of research; analyzing a textbook/paper; design of research and pre-planning phase; criteria for a topic selection; problem definition and objective statement of research; content, process and time planning; research techniques; survey design; observation; interview techniques; sampling techniques; defining hypothesis; solutions and evaluation; basic statistical methods and aims of usage; regression, correlation, multivariable analysis, classification, hypothesis testing; research methods for places; Geographical information systems (GIS), field studies; case studies; research ethics, problems of reliability and validity in research; communicating the research results; techniques of writing report, articles and papers; writing and presentation techniques.