Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Methods and Approaches in Public Health Research

Course Description

This course is designed for DrPH students, as one choice of several options to fulfil the requirement for courses on research methods. It is also a recommended complement to required courses in critical appraisal. The course is learner-centred and invites students to engage with a broad array of distinct research purposes and approaches used in public health evidence. The course provides a comparative assessment of the relative strengths, weaknesses and different approaches for different research questions. Taxonomies of research objectives will be presented (e.g., basic, quantitative and mixed methods research) although relatively more weight will be given to quantitative or mixed methods designs most commonly seen in applied public health research and on the specific designs of interest to members of the class. The course seeks to foster personal growth in terms of critical awareness of options and distinct risks to validity across research approaches, as well as familiarity with reference materials on from several disciplines. Students will engage with reference and self-directed learning materials from a wide variety of disciplines and sources. Students will demonstrate the cognitive and behavioural skills necessary to develop research proposals.

Course Objectives

With respect to published research by others, learners will be able to:

• Identify and distinguish between distinct research approaches, designs, and study design features.
• Critically explain the key steps required for study validity across different forms of research (e.g., how approaches to sampling and analysis vary for distinct research purposes).
• Find, review, critique, and summarize reference works on study design and study validity, working across disciplines and schools.
• Give and receive critical peer review on research methods plans.

With respect to their OWN research interests and plans:

• Write and revise research questions that can be answered using specific research approaches.
• Select and defend the overall design, and key design features, for a novel research proposal including: selection/sampling; choice of measures and data collection; and purpose-driven analysis plans.
• Select and apply knowledge on research methods from a variety of reference sources. Examples include research textbooks and monographs, review articles, and methodological research papers, and videos. Sources will include academic, commercial and not-for-profit sector resources for professional researchers, students and professional ‘end-users’.
• Develop a personal resources library on research methods relevant to their own research ideas and professional work.
• Develop an independent learning plan to strengthen skills at critical appraisal of research and toward designing one’s own research in the DrPH and beyond.

Methods of Assessment

Homework/active-learning tasks (5 exercises)	40%
Presentation	20%
Research Question Assignment	40%