First experiences in lecturing Research Methods in Tirana Z. Budimac, M. Ivanović, G. Rakić

Research Methods - History ● Introduced to our (joint) master studies during the Tempus project. ● Started 2007 (before that existed in Leicester). ● As a crash course held also in Skopje and Linz ● The need: more master students, more PhD students (people we do not know in advance), supervisor does not have time to cover issues individually

Structure of the course Research, science, research methods Structure of papers, theses On presentations and conferences On supervising, exams, … Subset of applicable statistics Subset of project management Short workshops on different topics (invited lecturers)

Exam Assignments 1.Executive summary (how to write) 2.Review (how to read) 3.Presentation on 2 (how to talk) 4.Statistical assignment 5.Project management (?)

Tirana, 2014 Master students Motivation: they can earn points during master studies on publishing papers 51 enrolled Lectures over five days, all parts, less discussion, no workshops Changed from the original plan where three lecturers where planned to lecture over the whole semester – in three “waves” 3 assignments (no PM, no presentation) Review did not have to contain (too much) references 28 solve all three assignments in the first examination period

Experiences Results are in the expected area Two students highest marks (or four) One failed (experience: the course is “easy to pass” but also hard to achieve highest marks)

Interesting In reviews, many students complained how authors did not follow the rules for references – while not following the same rules in their own reviews One student complained that the paper he reviewed should be written in two columns format There were several similar pairs of solutions, but not to similar to take any measures.