My colleague and I spent a couple of months developing some short videos which introduce some of the most common business research designs for the University of Worcester Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program. Research design can be tricky subject to teach and discuss; indeed, scholars cannot even agree on what it entails and some term it research strategy. A (positive) challenge that we had on the DBA was covering enough research designs to support the cohort. We started off by only discussing four research designs in detail as part the Research Design and Methods module, however, as the program grew, we found that there was a desire to adopt a wider range of research designs as part of doctoral research. This gradual expansion led to challenges adequately fitting in all the research designs people were interested in. To enable us to undertake learning activities and discuss the practical application of each research design in the classroom, we adopted a flipped classroom approach. Providing an introduction to research designs video, and then a short video giving a background and summary of nine different research designs, which offered the foundation for further discussion and application in class. The nine research designs discussed have all been utilised by doctoral researchers on Worcester’s DBA program and include case studies, narrative research, interpretative phenomenological analysis, action research, Delphi research, ethnography, Q methodology, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), and survey research. The video playlist is publicly available to support others who are interested and can be accessed here.
Doctoral Research Methods Videos
Five years of delivering the Research Methods and Design module to DBA cohorts has led to the gradual development and accumulation of too much good material to include it all in the teaching time allocated. Plus, after five years the module would benefit from a refresh to ensure that it is still innovative and fits the needs of the diverse cohort. I decided to flip the classroom for a couple of core subjects, which are picked up in less detail in earlier modules and where greater application of the topic would be helpful. To support this, I recorded a mini-series of three videos on research philosophy. The first video recaps some of the key distinctions implicit within research philosophy. The second video builds on this and discusses the opposing views and assumptions held within positivism and interpretivism, and how these commonly align with data collection methods and analysis. The final video discusses four more research philosophies; realism, pragmatism, constructivism, and phenomenology, the views and implicit assumptions within each one, and the research methods and analysis they are commonly aligned with. The second topic I decided to initially cover was research design and the application of mono, multi and mixed methods research. In addition to embedding the videos in the course’s virtual learning environment, I have created and posted them on a new YouTube Channel to make them publicly available. The development of the channel is still a work in progress and the goal is to produce more videos as I continue to innovate the pedagogic delivery of the module. The current playlists can be accessed through the links below.
Robin Bell 