Follow directions on the Undergraduate Course Registration form to register for the course. Online course materials cannot be accessed prior to your course contract start date.
Overview
Welcome to Nursing 328: Understanding Research. This course is designed to introduce learners to the research process and to the methods and analytical tools required to critically evaluate research reports. The goal is to excite you about research as you engage with your tutor and work through this course, demystifying the research process as you see how research applies to your professional life.
Outline
Unit 1: The Value of Research and Evidence-Based Practice
Unit 2: Philosophical Foundations of Research
Unit 3: Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Unit 4: Research Ethics
Unit 5: Research Problems, Questions and Hypotheses
Unit 6: Scholarly Evidence and Reviewing the Literature
Unit 7: Quantitative Research Design
Unit 8: Qualitative Research Design
Unit 9: Sampling and Data Collection
Unit 10: Data Analysis
Unit 11: Critiquing Research Studies
Unit 12: Knowledge Translation
Learning outcomes
The broad course outcomes are as follows:
explain the importance of research to evidence-informed professional practice
describe ethical considerations in research
describe quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approaches to research
critically appraise research reports
Evaluation
To receive credit for NURS 328, students must complete and submit all required assessments , and achieve a composite grade of at least C (64 percent). All papers submitted must follow the guidelines of the current APA Publication Manual.
The assignments and weighting of the composite grade is as follows:
Activity
Weight
Assignment 1
15%
Assignment 2
15%
Assignment 3
35%
Cumulative Unit Assessment (Units 1-6) (Invigilated)
15%
Cumulative Unit Assessment (Units 7-11) (Invigilated)
20%
Total
100%
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
The quiz will be an invigilated and located in the course study guide (the quiz is not booked through the myAU or the Exam Center). It is your responsibility to arrange invigilation directly through Proctor U.
Materials
This course either does not have a course package or the textbooks are open-source material and available to students at no cost. This course has a Course Administration and Technology Fee, but students are not charged the Course Materials Fee.
Blackstone, A. (2019). Principles of sociological inquiry: Qualitative and quantitative methods. Retrieve from Open BC Campus (Print)
DeCarlo, M. (2019). Scientific inquiry in social work. Pressbooks (Print)
Woo, K. (2019). Polit & Beck Canadian essentials of nursing research (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. (Print)
Please purchase the Woo textbook or access the Blackstone (2019) or DeCarlo (2019) text for free at the aforementioned site. You may also access a resource of your choice.
* Assigned readings in the course study guide apply to either of the above texts.
Supplemental Resources
A number of additional readings and other resources are included throughout the course. Clicking on the title of the reading or resource will allow you to access it directly via the AUs online library or the internet.
A complete list of all course readings and supplemental resources can be found in the Reference section of the course. Additional resources that you may find helpful in exploring specific topics are located in the Bibliography.
You are encouraged to search for resources and to share those resources with other students enrolled in the course by posting the URL for the resource in the Additional Resources Conference Forum.
Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice. Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized study counterparts.