Course description

A directed study is a research/project based course supervised by a faculty member, resulting in a major written document. It offers the student an opportunity to conduct research in a specific area of interest under the guidance of a faculty member. The subject matter of the course will relate to the student’s research interests as well as the faculty member’s area of expertise and research inquiry.
The course is designed for both science and practice based research.
To enroll to the course, students the average grade have to be not lower than 8.
A student may not do more than one directed study per studies period.

Aims of the course

This course aims to provide the student with a supervised experience that involves gaining special expertise in a specific area of interest, to analyse in-depth a topic in economics, politics or management that is only broadly covered in the general curriculum.

Learning outcomes:

• To develop academic communication skills;
• To develop research methods and independent study skills, which allow for the in-depth learning of self-selected topics within the area of study;
• To develop and practice creative thinking and creative problem-solving skills with a variety of complex topics within an area of study in order to generate original ideas and products.

Course Description

An activity course involving practical experience in planning a research project, designing questionnaires, sampling, interpreting results and preparing a research report. The course provides an introduction to research methods used in business and management. It covers qualitative and quantitative methods, using primary and secondary data. The course is designed to provide students a solid foundation for conducting their own research and for critically evaluating and reading prior academic research. The course presents the fundamentals of the research process. The knowledge and competencies acquired in the study process will enable students to make methodological decisions in designing and planning research. The overall goal of the course is to equip students with the skills necessary to perform research.

Learning Outcomes

During this course, you will:

• Understand the relevance of research in managerial decision- making.
• Have a critical awareness of research issues, methodologies, and methods used in business and management as well as an understanding of potential ethical problems of the research
• Obtain skills to identify a business problem/need, translate it into a research question, and design an appropriate way to answer it.
• Develop skills to identify and understand the main qualitative and quantitative strategies of research, of their advantages and disadvantages and of appropriate application areas.
• Develop skills to design a research project and collect data.
• Obtain skills to analyze data and draw reasonable interpretations as well as communicate research findings in a clear and well-organized way
• Develop skills to critically evaluate the quality of other researchers’ findings and the process used to obtain them.