Overview
Welcome to Nursing 328: Understanding Research. This course is designed to introduce learners to the research process and to the methods and analytical tools required to critically evaluate research reports. The goal is to excite you about research as you engage with your tutor and work through this course, demystifying the research process as you see how research applies to your professional life.
Learning outcomes
The broad course outcomes are as follows:
- explain the importance of research to evidence-informed professional practice
- describe ethical considerations in research
- describe quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approaches to research
- critically appraise research reports
Evaluation
To receive credit for NURS 328, students must complete and submit all required assessments , and achieve a composite grade of at least C (64 percent). All papers submitted must follow the guidelines of the current APA Publication Manual.
The assignments and weighting of the composite grade is as follows:
| Activity | Weight |
| Assignment 1 | 15% |
| Assignment 2 | 15% |
| Assignment 3 | 35% |
| Cumulative Unit Assessment (Units 1-6) (Invigilated) | 15% |
| Cumulative Unit Assessment (Units 7-11) (Invigilated) | 20% |
| Total | 100% |
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
The quiz will be an invigilated and located in the course study guide (the quiz is not booked through the myAU or the Exam Center). It is your responsibility to arrange invigilation directly through Proctor U.
Materials
This course either does not have a course package or the textbooks are open-source material and available to students at no cost. This course has a Course Administration and Technology Fee, but students are not charged the Course Materials Fee.
Digital course materials
Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
Creative Commons. (2020/2012). Sociological inquiry principles: Qualitative and quantitative methods. Unnamed Publisher. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.
Creative Commons
DeCarlo, M. (2019). Scientific inquiry in social work.
Pressbooks
Physical course materials
The following course materials are included in a course package that will be shipped to your home prior to your course’s start date:
Woo, K. (2019). Polit & Beck Canadian essentials of nursing research (4th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
Nursing students have found the Woo textbook to be helpful throughout their Bachelor of Nursing program, therefore this is the recommended resource pathway for nursing students. The other resource pathway for learners is to access Creative Commons (2012) or the DeCarlo (2019) text free at the aforementioned sites. You may also access another resource of your choice.
* Assigned readings in the course study guide apply to the above resources.
Supplemental Resources
A number of additional readings and other resources are included throughout the course. Clicking on the title of the reading or resource will allow you to access it directly via the AUs online library or the internet.
A complete list of all course readings and supplemental resources can be found in the Reference section of the course. Additional resources that you may find helpful in exploring specific topics are located in the Bibliography.
You are encouraged to search for resources and to share those resources with other students enrolled in the course by posting the URL for the resource in the Additional Resources Conference Forum.