7-Day Workshop on Research Methodology for Faculty of Arts & Social Science, Commerce & Management,4April-10 April, 2016

7-Day Workshop on Research Methodology for Faculty of Arts & Social Science, Commerce & Management,

Organized by Centre for Research, Innovation and Training, The IIS University, Jaipur

4 April - 10 April 2016

REPORT

Logical and conceptual knowledge is a prerequisite of sound research. The aim of the 7-Day workshop on research methodology was to promote research acumen among young researchers in the faculties of Arts and Social Sciences and Commerce and Management. The workshop was organized from 4-10 April, 2016 by the Centre for Research, Innovation and Training, The IIS University, Jaipur with the following objectives:

• To enable the participants to conduct effective qualitative and quantitative research.
• To familiarize the participants with the basics of data handling and analysis.
• To give hands on experience in research to the participants through the practical work assigned to them.
• To enable the participants to develop research plan proposal.
• To develop the applied research skills of the participants.

A brief report of the workshop is as follows:

There were three sessions of one and a half hour each. The workshop was attended by 35 participants from various universities.

DAY I

The sessions on day one were devoted to Problem Identification & Review of Literature. The resource person for the sessions was Prof. N. K. Garg, Dept. of Commerce, MDS University Rohtak. Prof Garg enlightened the students on the basics of formulating a research problem and proper referencing. The students were exposed to several techniques of looking for research problems and giving citations to sources. The last session of the day was planned to give practice to the participants on the learning of the day.

DAY II

The second day of the workshop was planned to update the participants about research designs, experimental designs and measurement of scales. The first session of the day was taken by Prof. Ameeta Sharma, Dept. of Statistics, University of Rajasthan. Prof. Sharma taught the basics of research designs to the participants. Her lecture covered the important types of research designs such as experimental, correlational, case study, survey and longitudinal. During the second session of the day Dr. Bhawana Arya, Dept. of Psychology, The IIS University, Jaipur talked in detail about the designs in experimental research. The participants were made familiar with the different designs followed in experimental research and the strengths and limitations of each type of design. Since an effective designs ensures an effective research, the session delved into the importance of research designs. The third session of the day was taken by Prof. Nisha Yadav, Dept. of Sociology, The IIS University, Jaipur. Prof. Yadav apprised the students with the different types of scales and the procedure of their construction. The students learned the basics of scale construction. 

DAY III

The third day of the workshop was dedicated to teaching the research scholars effective methods of conducting review of literature identify research gaps and arrive at a research problem. The resource person for all the three sessions was Dr. Satish Kumar, Dept. of Management, MNIT, Jaipur. Dr. Kumar demonstrated effective ways to extract data from online databases and identify valid research gaps which can be subsequently taken up as research questions. He also did a lot of exercises with the participants to ensure maximum learning. The last session of the day was a practice session for participants, supervised by Dr. Kumar. The students tried to identify gaps and write research questions.

DAY IV

Day five was scheduled for variable selection and hypothesis formulation. Dr. Ashwini Kumar, Dept. of Management, JKLU, Jaipur was the resource person for the day. The first session was dedicated to selection of variable and their measurement. Dr. Ashwini shared with the students the classification of variables into dependent and independent variable. Variables can vary between people (IQ, Height), places (weather, unemployment) or time (profit, sales, motivation, absenteeism, productivity). In the second session, Dr. Ashwini talked about the various types of hypothesis. The important things while framing a hypothesis include level of significance, confidence level, one-tailed Vs two-tailed tests and power of test. The third session of the day was designed as the practice session to enable to the participants to apply the knowledge gained during the first two sessions. They completed worksheets to practice variable selection and hypothesis formulation.

DAY V

The first session of day five focused on the tools of data collection. Data for research can be collected through interview, schedule and many other secondary sources. The resource person for this session was Prof. N.D. Mathur, Dept. of EAFM, University of Rajasthan. Prof. Mathur delved into the details of data collection through primary and secondary sources. He also talked about the common mistakes made by research scholars while collecting data. According to him secondary sources have their own importance and all data sources should be handled with care. The second session was also taken by Prof. Mathur in which he talked about ethical report writing and writing a research proposal. Plagiarism is a major problem of research writing. He shared many tips with the participants to avoid plagiarism. The final session was designed to give practical exposure to the participants. The session was facilitated by Dr. Bhawana Arya. In this session, the students were asked to start working on a research proposal which was to be presented on the final day of the workshop.

DAY VI

Day six of the workshop was dedicated to develop the skills of questionnaire formation in the participants. The sessions were conducted by Prof. Sanket Viz, Dept. of Management, BPS Mahila Vishwa Vidyalaya, Sonepat. The students understood the steps in the formation of a questionnaire. Prof. Viz. talked about the different types of questions with their strengths and limitations. An adequately designed questionnaire leads to collection of relevant data for the purpose of research. The last session was designed as a practice session for the participants. Prof. Viz guided the participants through the process of developing a questionnaire.

DAY VII

The final day of the workshop was dedicated to the presentations of research proposals by the participants. The resource person for the day was Prof. Vinay Srivastava, Dept. of Social Anthropology, University of Delhi. In the first session Prof. Srivastava talked in detail about the field research. Ethnography and its importance in social science research was discussed at length. The remaining sessions saw the presentation of the research proposal prepared by the participants. Prof. Srivastava listened to each proposal and provided his valuable suggestions to the participants.

The sessions were followed by valediction. Prof. Srivastava gave away the certificates to all the participants.

The 7-day workshop was a great learning experience for all the participants.

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS