The Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Education and Learning (CEL) is launching the third run of its MOOC on Multidisciplinary Research Methods for Engineers on edX on January 31, 2023.
Course Instructors, Prof. Marcus Specht and Dr. Gillian Saunders-Smits on their motivation to develop the course: “As an interuniversity and interdisciplinary centre we believe that working together with researchers from different scientific fields is key in bringing education and learning technology to the next level. Collaboration in a multidisciplinary field can be challenging, that is why we created the new MOOC: Multidisciplinary Research Methods for Engineers. We are delighted to be returning for a third run which will be open for enrolment until March 2024!”
The use of data to understand phenomena and evaluate designs and interventions in different disciplines is increasingly evident. As a result, engineers and other applied scientists frequently find themselves needing to collaborate in multidisciplinary fields when carrying out research to stay innovative.
The MOOC: Multidisciplinary Research Methods for Engineers explains the fundamentals of planning and carrying out state-of-the-art qualitative and quantitative research in different phases of an innovation or research project.
The course was designed by a team of experienced, multidisciplinary researchers in education, engineering and research methodologies. It also features experts in the field of research methodologies as guest lecturers.
In the course you will be working towards creating a project plan for your research, giving you a head-start in your research project. You will do so by learning to describe what multi-disciplinary research is and its associated challenges and opportunities in various disciplines. Next, you will learn about each phase of scientific research and select the appropriate methods for a research question in terms of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods.
The MOOC is self-paced so you can start at any time.