Quantitative Methods in the Communication Sciences

This course introduces students to basic empirical methods used in communication sciences. Students learn how to distinguish between qualitative and quantitative research and how to formulate research questions that can be investigated using empirical approaches. After an introduction to the various types of data and empirical approaches, students learn how to collect data using surveys. The course is structured around the following topics:

• Introduction to and overview of qualitative and quantitative research methods
• Formulation of quantitative research questions and hypotheses
• Research designs for quantitative analysis
• Research design: Surveys
• Research design: Design of Questionnaires
• Research design: Sampling
• Research design: Experiments
• Research design: Online data collection and management

The course is designed to provide students with the fundamental skills to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of data-analytical objectives and techniques
• Assess the appropriateness of data-analytical techniques in response to questions asked by communication researchers
• Be able to efficiently collect data both online and offline

The course is carried out both through lectures and independent work on the individual presentation. The lectures are carried out as part of the Marketing Research Master level course (COM.184) and account for 1.5 ECTS. The individual assignment is carried out separately and accounts for the other 1.5 ECTS. Both parts have to been completed to receive the 3 ECTS.

Recommended Readings
Malhotra, N. K. (2009). Marketing Research - An Applied Orientation, 6th Edition, Pearson.

Field, A. (2009). Discovering statistics using SPSS (3^rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Lilien, G. L., Rangaswamy, A., & De Bruyn, A. (2007), Principles of marketing engineering, DecisionPro.

Prerequisites

• None

Number of Participants
Open

Grading
Individual presentation

Information about Individual Presentation
During the semester, students will work independently on a selected topic related to the course. This will give the students the opportunity to deepen their understanding and knowledge of one specific concept of their choice. Ideally, this topic is related to the dissertation project of the student. Each participant then has to prepare a short lecture-style presentation that introduces the other students to the topic. This presentation will be given during the lecture and lasts 20 minutes max. Following the presentation, we will actively discuss the presented content and its implications for empirical research (10 minutes max.).

Schedule