COURSE UNIT TITLE

Offered By

Foreign Trade (English)

Level of Course Unit

Second Cycle Programmes (Master's Degree)

Course Coordinator

PROFESSOR CANAN MADRAN

Offered to

Foreign Trade (English)

Course Objective

Aim of the course is to familiarize students with the research process and provides them with the necessary foundation in designing and conducting research applied to business problems. The course also illustrates the integration between statistics and research methods by demonstrating the ways to use statistics in analyzing data collected during research. In this course, the focus will be mostly on the logic of the research process, the methodology aspect of research, and the basics of data analysis and inferential statistics.

Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit

Mode of Delivery

Face -to- Face

Prerequisites and Co-requisites

None

Recomended Optional Programme Components

None

Course Contents

Recomended or Required Reading

Research Methods for Business--A Skill Building Approach. Uma Sekaran (2003).John Wiley. New York. 4th Edition.

Multivariate Data Analysis. Joseph F. Hair, William C. Black, Barry J. Babin and Rolph E. Anderson, 7th Edition, 2009, Pearson Education.
Other course materials are also drawn from a range of textbooks and journal articles.
2. Software:

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

The course consists of lectures, class discussions, computer applications, assignments and mini projects.

Assessment Methods

Further Notes About Assessment Methods

None

Assessment Criteria

1. Lectures will focus on the transfer of research principles, processes, designs and methodologies and the transfer of basic and advanced statistical concepts and techniques where comprehension is substantially enhanced by additional elaboration and illustration.
2. Exams will measure the ability to identify and apply the appropriate method to the real situations. Each exam will cover course materials and include exercises like those assigned for homework, questions on lecture materials, and additional items covered in class meetings.
3. Students are required to write an individual Research Proposal which allows them to apply the concepts and skills they have developed to a topic of personal or professional interest. Each week as making progress through the text and new methods are introduced, the students will apply these new skills to their research project.
4. The proposal does not commit the student to using the research hypothesis. If the student believes he/she will be doing a project which is not research based as a master s paper or project, he/she still needs to develop a proposal based upon a research hypothesis that involves data gathering and analysis, and needs to show how the results can be applied outside the environment where the data was gathered. If the student doesn t think his/her research will result in the kind of knowledge that might be published in a journal, he/she needs to consider another research hypothesis.
By writing the research proposal, students will improve analytical and communication skills through identifying the relevant research and statistical methodology to the real problems.
5. Research Proposals will be graded by the instructors and be evaluated for such factors as apparent understanding of the topic, originality of treatment and discussion, comprehensiveness of the report s content, clarity, and mechanics of presentation such as organization, format, punctuation, grammar, and quality of exhibits and charts.
6. Grade for Student Participation will depend on (i) class attendance, (ii) the quality of answers the student provides to questions posed by the instructor during class, and (iii) the general contribution the student makes to the creation of a positive learning environment.
7. A good attendance record may bring the grade up one level, for grades on the boundary between two grade levels.

Language of Instruction

English

Course Policies and Rules

1. It is obligatory to attend at least 70% of the classes.
2. Violations of Plagiarism of any kind will result in disciplinary steps being taken.
3. Absence will not be considered an excuse for submitting homework assignments late.
4. Delayed research proposals will suffer grade decay equivalent to one letter grade per day late.

Contact Details for the Lecturer(s)

canan.madran@deu.edu.tr

Office Hours

To be announced.

Work Placement(s)

None

Workload Calculation

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes