MAHEL4070 Research Design and Project Description Course description

Language of instruction: Norwegian and English

This course covers the research process from the planning phase until completion of the master’s thesis, including literary searches and referencing, formulation of research questions/hypotheses/issues, choice of research method and development of a project description, as well as ethical assessments relating to the student’s own work. Formal requirements for the project description are also covered to enable the student to complete the project description for their master’s thesis by the end of the course.

Pass/fail.

The student must have been admitted to the Master’s Programme in Health Sciences.

Milieu therapy work in an ecological perspective involves a holistic approach to person-centred services where one considers which factors and conditions in the environment affect behaviour at the individual and group level.

As a social educator, the student performs his or her work in meetings with other people. These are people who often find themselves in vulnerable and difficult situations in society. During the course, the student will be challenged with his/her behavioural ecological perspective and his/her relational, communication, and guidance skills when it comes to achieving a good and developing collaboration with users, relatives, colleagues or other partners.

Approved coursework requirements in VERB2300, passed part 1 (practical training) in VERPRA20, as well as passed all other credit-earning courses from the 2nd year of study.

The following must have been approved in order for the student to take the examination:

• compulsory attendance and participation at seminar days for your own specialisation
• presentation of own student’s project description for the master’s thesis with subsequent discussion in a plenary session
• held the role of opponent, providing feedback on one or more fellow students' project plan (peer assessment/opponent)

A project examination in the form of a project description for the student's master’s thesis, individual or in groups, depending on whether the thesis will be written individually or in a group. Scope: 3,000 words (+/- 20%). For group assignments, one overall grade is awarded for the whole group.

Resit examination: If the student fails the assignment, he/she will be given opportunity to submit a reworked version.

If the course is taught in English, students can also choose to write/conduct the examination in a Scandinavian language (Norwegian, Swedish or Danish).

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.

Individual home exam (multiple choice assignment), 45 minutes.

All.

A internal examiner checks the question set and the answers.

An external examiner is used regularly, and at least for every third completion of the course. When selecting answers for external grading, the selection must include a minimum of 10% of the answers, but in any case no fewer than 5 answers. In the event of exclusion, the external examiner's assessment shall benefit all students.