Course 1:  The Architecture of the Dissertation.  

 

This course is the fulcrum of your dissertation.  Getting the blueprint right is paramount.  It sets the context for designing and aligning the components of your study before you embark on the detailed chapters. This course uses the Latham (2016) nine-cell framework to help you design and align a coherent dissertation.  

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This course takes you through each of the units of the first chapter:

 

• Develop a topic for your dissertation.

• Develop an introduction and background of the study.

• State the problem or research opportunity.

• Describe the significance of your study succinctly, supported by a gap in the literature or a gap in practice.

• Craft a purpose statement; compose research question(s) and hypotheses/qualitative inquiries.

• Create a theoretical foundation or a conceptual framework of the study.

• Distinguish research methods and the respective corresponding research designs.

• Stipulate operational definitions and the assumptions and limitations of the study.

• Provide a summary and the organization of the study.

• Draft the first chapter of the dissertation.

 

In this course, you will also assess your existing research capacity. You will secure a way to organize and manage the volumes of literature you’ll be gathering for the study.

 

Course 2:  The Literature Review.

 

A literature (lit) review examines published information on a particular topic or field. It identifies, evaluates, and synthesizes the relevant literature within a particular field of research. The literature review is an orderly, cohesive, well-sequenced narrative that unfolds the development of your topic for your readers. You present a logical sequence of existing seminal, core, and practitioner research. You review the literature and explore the application and influence of each selected article on the proposed study. This includes articles that cover what has already been done or found to help create a foundation and justification for your research.

 

A well-conducted literature review should be a continuum of how knowledge has evolved within the field. It highlights what has already been done, what is generally accepted, what is emerging, and what the current state of thinking is on your topic.  Your lit review will present how others have researched and measured the variables or themes related to the study phenomenon, including what is the research gap and how your study addresses this gap. It documents the need for your research. A well-written Chapter 2 sets you up for a strong Chapter 5. 

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Course 3.  Research Methodology and Design.  

 

Research methodology and design are vital to your study.  Research methodology and design describe the plan you will use to answer your research question. This course introduces the language of research, ethical principles, and the boots-on-the-ground challenges inherent in conducting research. It covers research methodology and design. This includes the different qualitative and quantitative methodological categories you can use to answer your research questions, along with specific hands-on approaches and methods. For example, you might select a case study or a structured interview for qualitative methodologies. You might choose a correlational or a repeated measures design for quantitative designs. 

 

Course 4: Data Collection and Analysis.

 

This course provides guidance on what to do with the collected data. Specifically, it covers how to clean, organize and summarize the collected data, how to analyze the data, and how to present results and findings based on the data. Data typically includes information about the characteristics and demographics of the sample, summary data about the results tests or questionnaires, and hypothesis testing or research question theme development. This course covers how to present your data in logical and sequential ways. When and how to use text, tables, and figures. To ensure readability and clarity of findings for your readers, a logical organization, structure, and presentation are of the utmost importance. 

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Course 5: Results, Conclusions, Implications & Recommendations

for Further Study.

 

This course integrates the study’s findings and shows the larger implications of your research. This is where you return to your literature review in Chapter 2 to bring relevant studies forward to interact with your own findings. You compare and contrast your results to what was previously found for each research question. You explore the significance of your findings for your population. You explain in detail what conclusions you’ve drawn from the study and how those conclusions might influence current practices in your field. You discuss any limitations of your study, exploring limitations to the generalizability of your findings for other researchers. You suggest what further research needs to be done and why.