Overview
Many postgraduate students take a generic research methods module early in their program and only need the content months later, when they are writing a proposal or methodology chapter. By then, terms like 'positionality', 'construct validity' or 'purposive sampling' are half-remembered. Our courses are designed for that moment: they revisit the core ideas and immediately apply them to real projects.
Each course is organized around the chain of decisions a study requires: philosophical stance and approach, research questions, design, sampling, data collection, analysis plan, quality criteria and ethics. Participants bring a working research question and leave with a documented design they can discuss with their supervisor, having practiced justifying each choice with methodological literature.
Courses run for individuals (one-to-one or small open groups) and for cohorts from a department, lab or doctoral school. Institution-wide programs with multiple cohorts or embedded curricula are arranged through our research capacity-building service.
Who it’s for and the problems it solves
This is for you if you are…
- Master's and doctoral students preparing a research proposal or methodology chapter
- Professional doctorate candidates and practitioner-researchers returning to research after years in practice
- Early-career researchers moving into a new methodological tradition (for example a quantitative researcher adding qualitative work)
- Research teams and doctoral cohorts who want a shared methods vocabulary
- Health, education and social-care professionals conducting evaluation or practitioner research
Common problems we help with
- Your supervisor says your methodology is 'not justified' and you are not sure what that means in practice
- You know the names of paradigms and designs but not how to choose between them
- You are unsure how to calculate or justify your sample size
- You have to write about validity, reliability or trustworthiness and it feels abstract
- Your program's methods module was generic and did not cover your approach
What’s included — and what isn’t
Included
- Pre-course questionnaire on participants' projects, disciplines and prior training
- Core modules on research paradigms, research questions, and matching design to question
- Quantitative design: experimental, quasi-experimental, cross-sectional and longitudinal designs; measurement; sampling and power
- Qualitative design: case study, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, narrative inquiry; sampling and saturation debates; reflexivity
- Mixed methods: convergent, explanatory sequential and exploratory sequential designs and integration
- Quality criteria: validity and reliability, trustworthiness (credibility, transferability, dependability, confirmability)
- Research ethics and data management essentials
- Applied exercises on participants' own studies, with individual feedback on a design summary
Not included
- Designing a participant's study for them or writing their methodology chapter
- Accredited or credit-bearing qualifications; certificates confirm attendance or completion only
- Ethics committee approval, which only the relevant committee can give
What you receive
- Course program
- A session-by-session plan with learning outcomes, pre-reading and exercises, agreed before the course starts.
- Live sessions
- Interactive online or in-person sessions mixing short input, worked examples and practice on participants' projects.
- Design summary feedback
- Written feedback on each participant's one-page research design summary, focused on alignment between question, design, sampling and analysis.
- Course materials
- Slides, templates (design summary, sampling justification, quality criteria table) and a curated reading list.
- Certificate
- Optional certificate of attendance or completion listing topics and hours; not an accredited qualification.
How it works
Needs analysis
Participants or the organizer complete a short questionnaire on projects, stage and gaps. We propose a program and format.
Program agreement
We confirm topics, number and length of sessions, reading and the design-summary assignment.
Delivery
Sessions run weekly or as an intensive block, with exercises between sessions.
Feedback and wrap-up
Participants submit design summaries for written feedback, and a final session addresses common issues.
Sample session outline (six-session course)
- Session 1: From topic to researchable question
- Narrowing a topic, types of research question, using PICO, PEO or SPIDER where relevant; exercise: rewrite your question three ways.
- Session 2: Paradigms and approaches
- Positivism, post-positivism, interpretivism, pragmatism and critical approaches in plain terms; why your stance shapes design and quality criteria.
- Session 3: Quantitative design and measurement
- Choosing a design, operationalizing variables, validated instruments, threats to validity, sampling and a first look at power analysis.
- Session 4: Qualitative design
- Case study, phenomenology, grounded theory and others; purposive and theoretical sampling; interviews and focus groups; reflexivity.
- Session 5: Mixed methods and integration
- Common designs, timing and priority, joint displays, and how to avoid two separate studies stapled together.
- Session 6: Quality, ethics and justification
- Validity, reliability and trustworthiness; ethics and data management essentials; peer review of each participant's design summary.
What participants can do by the end
We define outcomes as things participants can demonstrate, and we check them through the design-summary assignment rather than a quiz.
- Write a focused research question and explain why it suits a quantitative, qualitative or mixed approach
- Choose a design and justify it against at least one plausible alternative
- Describe a sampling strategy and sample size rationale appropriate to the design
- Identify the main threats to validity or trustworthiness in their study and how to address them
- Outline the analysis approach that follows from the design
- Summarize ethical and data management considerations for their project
Why we teach through participants' own projects
Methods concepts stick when they solve a problem you actually have. When a participant discovers that their 'phenomenological' study is really a descriptive thematic study, or that their convenience sample cannot support the generalization they planned, they understand the concept in a way no lecture can produce.
In cohort courses, participants also learn from each other's projects, which exposes them to designs outside their own tradition and prepares them for questions from examiners in other fields.
Individuals and cohorts
Individuals can join a small open group or take the course one to one at their own pace. Departments and labs can book a closed cohort, with content adjusted to their disciplines; for example, a nursing cohort will spend more time on clinical research designs and reporting guidelines. For deeper help with a specific study after the course, see quantitative research design and related services.
What the work can look like
Illustrative example — fictional data
Illustrative course plan for a doctoral cohort
A doctoral school asked for a methods refresher for twelve first-year education PhD students before their proposal deadline. This plan is an invented example of how a course is shaped.
Needs analysis findings
Seven participants planned qualitative case studies, three surveys and two mixed methods designs. Most rated themselves least confident about sampling justification and research paradigms.
Program adjustments
Six weekly two-hour online sessions; session 4 extended to cover case study design in depth; a sampling clinic added in week 5 with small groups by approach.
Assessment and feedback
Each participant submitted a one-page design summary in week 5 and received written comments on alignment and justification before the final session.
Illustrative example only. The cohort, numbers and schedule are invented and do not describe a real client.
What you’ll need to provide
- Participants' research topics or questions and stage of study
- Disciplines and methodological traditions involved
- Preferred schedule, format (online or in person) and group size
- Any program handbook or proposal template participants must follow
- For cohorts: a named contact to coordinate enrollment and rooms or links
You don’t need everything ready to ask for a quote — tell us what you have and we’ll say what’s missing.
What affects price and turnaround
Price depends on
- Number and length of sessions
- Group size and whether individual written feedback is included for each participant
- Degree of tailoring to specific disciplines
- Online or in-person delivery
- Whether recordings and reusable materials are required
Turnaround depends on
- Time needed to tailor content after the needs analysis
- Participants' and facilitators' availability
- Academic calendar constraints such as term dates and proposal deadlines
Every project is quoted individually. How we price our work.
Questions people ask before starting
Will the course help me write my methodology chapter?
It prepares you to write it: you will understand and be able to justify your choices. You write the chapter yourself. If you want feedback on the draft later, our thesis services can review it.
Is there a certificate?
Yes, we can issue a certificate of attendance or completion listing the topics and contact hours. It is not an accredited qualification and does not carry academic credit.
I'm not in social sciences. Is this relevant?
Yes, when tailored. Health, education, business, engineering education and environmental research all use these designs. We adapt examples and reporting guidelines to your field.
What if my supervisor prefers a different approach?
The course explains the options and the arguments for each. Your supervisor's guidance and your program's expectations take priority, and understanding the alternatives usually makes those conversations easier.
Can the course be recorded?
Input sections can be recorded for participants who miss a session. We usually do not record discussion of individual projects, to protect participants' unpublished work.