Welcome! Are you looking to learn more about how to conduct scientific research, specifically in an urban or local context? Then you have found the right course: Studying Cities: Social Science Methods for Urban Research by the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Erasmus University Rotterdam. During the course you will gain more insight in the different steps of the research cycle, and build a firm foundation for your own future research endeavors. Before any (urban) researcher may start conducting research, it is crucial to understand the different aspects and elements of doing research. The course will guide you through the various steps of the research cycle to provide you with the basic knowledge necessary for any Master-level program, but with a special focus on urban and local development. The course starts with introductory lectures on the problem statement, research objective, empirical cycle and the research question. Over the following weeks you will also learn the components and criteria of the theoretical framework and operationalization, research strategies, and the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. You will be provided with the necessary tools to understand and evaluate these key steps in scientific research by watching video lectures with in-video questions and by completing the final peer review, which will use all the elements you have learnt throughout the course.
RS
Found this course very helpful to deepen my knowledge of conducting urban research.
KH
Excellent course. Gives you a complete understanding of Urban Research methods and use of data collection technology and resolve. Use of syntax and strategy selection.
NA
This course is one of the best Social Science Research Course I have ever taken
AT
A very useful course and worth to join. Learned new applied Social Science methods in specific details for doing urban research.
AM
Great course for students who want to prepare their thesis proposal.
KM
peer graded assignments was a little bit hectic, as many peers didn't involve in proper grading methods
FW
Quite eye-opening course. Very relevant for student pursuing social sciences.
MN
They presented a regular and coherent model of various quantitative and qualitative research methods in the best way, which was very instructive and useful for me.
DA
Highly recommended for those intrested in urbanism and studying cities.
NS
The course was very informative; however, in some sessions, the instructors failed to communicate their points clearly. Including more examples could be helpful.
MA
Exceptionally well crafted modules. The videos and assignments encourage and task learning .
RS
The instructors provided clear explanations, and the assignments and quizzes have been extremely helpfu
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It has helped me a lot. It was a very effective course on Social Science Methods for Urban Research in Studying Cities. Thanks a lot to Course era and the IHS family to give me such an opportunity to gather knowledge once again after completing UMDT 5 in 2014. It was great!!
A very useful course and worth to join. Learned new applied Social Science methods in specific details for doing urban research.
Excellent course ir you are in a process of making a thesis in a urban problem. It is very organized with a great content
This is a great course because of its specialized content. Perfect for students moving to grad and post- grad studies.
Everything went almost perfect, except the last task which was too demanding. I recommend to think about another, more appropriate and not so time consuming knowledge assessment methods in this course. Also, some student are revengeful, meaning if you assess their task objectively that those are wear tasks, they do the same to your task no matter how good you did yours. Try to think about more objective way of assessing the final task as well.
Great course for students who want to prepare their thesis proposal.
They presented a regular and coherent model of various quantitative and qualitative research methods in the best way, which was very instructive and useful for me.
The course offers a great opportunity to learn about methods of academic research with a focus on urban planning.
This is a great course for those who want to pursue in studying cities.
Very good course. It helped me with my degree project.
A decent course, however a lot of the focus fell on research methodology and statistics. While this was interesting they were general concepts which belonged in a general stats course. I was looking for something which focused more on the challenges in conducting research in cities. Yes, surveys can gather information but *HOW* to conduct a survey. I know what questions to ask and how to structure the survey but how to get surveys to the right people and enough people. (this is just one example - same could be said for interviews, etc.)
Personally I found the this course useful because presents all the steps to prepare a research proposal from the very beginning, all the presentation are clearly explained (there could be some terms not everyone know, but is possible to review complementary bibliography to understand better some concepts). However, something to improve could be the quizes since sometimes are too textual anyway are helpful to remember what was explained in each session. The final task is interesting, it allows to evaluate examples of research proposals as well as to be critic to score each part of it justifying properly and also to evaluate other students' evaluations and provide them a feed back. Many thanks to the team of professors!
I am so delighted now cause After graduating from university, I wanted to learn more about common research methods between urban planning and the social sciences. I knew that to get answers before I acted, I first needed to understand the process of getting my questions answered. In this course, I learned to organize my mind to solve my question by choosing the best methods. I also understood the different aspects and elements of conducting research.
Thanks to the professors of this course. 🙏
This course was excellent, organized and structured. There is no extra or premeditated talk in it. The instructors are very organized and the videos have excellent recording and processing quality. All the presented texts are well thought out and structured without extraneous or marginal words. Speakers are polite, without extra movement, and the fonts of the texts are legible, simple and formal. All in all, I really enjoyed it!
The most important part I liked is the very comprehensive evaluation by me , a research proposal of Tenzic Temang, during his successful completion of for M.Sc degree in Urban Management ( UMD) from the Institute for Housing & Urban Development (IHS), Erasmus University, Rotterdam ( EUR) in the year 2017.
The course on Studying cities has helped me to expand my scope pf research in urban studies form Historical research methods to a interdisciplinary methodology. The video lectures, notes and assignments have kept me on my toes and enhanced my research skills as social scientist.
The course really helped me to have a clear picture on conceptualizing research with substantial knowledge on relevant procedures. It is going to help me in my present job as well as to prepare proposal for my PhD.
Clearly provided basis for decision making in formulating studies and possible methodologies to be used. I am now more confident in making studies related to my field of studies. Very useful and practical.
This course is really interesting in design and the way it examines knowledge, attention, and general logic. Itself, the course is very important and helps to provide insight into the learning experience.
Such a rigorous, thorough and enjoyable course - you really feel like you are learning fantastic content and technical skills. it behaves well as a foundational framework for urban analytics.