This course aims to improve students' ability to design feasible and theoretically sound research projects. The course will introduce a variety of research designs for social sciences, from the commonly used approaches, such as survey, focus group, and case study, to the multidisciplinary approach of operations research, such as game theory and simulation. Heavier emphasis will be placed on the commonly used approaches. This course emphasizes improving the ability to find good solutions to research design problems, rather than introducing different research methods. Students enrolling in this course are required to have taken at least an introductory research method course at either graduate or undergraduate level.

CILO-1: Identify key points of various research designs for social sciences. CILO-2: Summarize and explain the major advantages and disadvantages of each of commonly methods. CILO-3: Apply of the research designs learnt from this course to various research topics.