Media Release
Mangaluru, Sep 11: The research committee along with the post-graduate department of Psychology, St Agnes College organized a six-day National Level Research Enrichment Programme, with the topic 'Fundamentals of Quantitative Research and Publication'.
The programme had been spread out as a series of talks to help the student and research community understand the essence of research in a deeper and intimate manner.
Eminent research experts addressed and shared their knowledge and experience to the participants. The session witnessed the presence of the participants from different parts of the country, ranging from the student population to research scholars and faculty of various colleges and universities.
The first day started with the inauguration of the programme. The principal, Sr Dr M Venissa A C, graced the occasion with her warm and charming personality and mentioned that the progress of the country is in the hands of the upcoming generation and the attitude of curiosity and inquisitiveness will help in developing the scientific mindset in an individual. The six days programme will help young researchers to structure themselves in order to innovate the growth of our country.
The series of talks were distributed to simplify the complexity of research and were as follows:
Day 1 - Philosophy of Science in Research, Dr Ashok H S, retired professor Bangalore University. Dr Ashok H S, began the session by introducing research and then emphasizing philosophy's importance in developing scientific research knowledge. He described the quantitative and qualitative approaches to research, then scientific research and research in natural and social sciences. Later on, he enlightened the participants with the theory of reality (ontological) and theory of knowledge of reality (epistemological) aspects of philosophy in research. He ended the session with the phenomenological research method as it is vital to develop quantitative research knowledge.
Day 2 - Selection of research problem, objectives, hypothesis. Dr M Y Manjula, professor emeritus in Psychology, Christ (Deemed to be University) Bengaluru. Dr Manjula, started the session with pictionary to draw attention to understanding research problem, she emphasized how important it is to define a right research problem so that it paves a way for better research. She further emphasized the need for a proper review of Literature so as to enable us to identify the research gaps, and find areas for new Research areas. The session also highlighted how to formulate a hypothesis and objectives for research.
Day 3 - Research Design Dr Justin James, assistant professor, University College, Trivandrum. Dr Justin began the session expounding on the philosophical foundation in research and thereby connected it with appropriate selection of research design in Quantitative Approach. His session emphasized on various research designs such as true experiment, quasi experiment, non-experiment, and mixed methods research design. Subsequently, the resource person also gave an insight about topics like principles of experiment, principles causation, variance, and co-variance.
Day 4 - Sampling Design. Dr Baby Shari, professor in Psychology, Calicut University, Kerala. Dr Baby Shari began her session on Sampling Design by focusing on a definite plan for obtaining a sample from a given population. The session includedvarious topics of sampling design like principles of sampling, sampling error, methods of sampling etc. The speaker also clarified the queries of the participants.
Day 5 - Data Collection and Statistical Analysis. Dr Mariamma Philip, additional professor in Biostatistics, NIMHANS, Bengaluru. Dr Mariamma Philip, was introduced as a People’s Statistician and has a personality of simplifying complicated things. The session included the types on data collection, based on the objectives of the study, research design, steps in collecting data, the tools in data collection and also spoke about developing a rating scale and what we need to know before developing a rating scale. In the second part of the session she spoke about data analyses, she explained in detail about the types of data and how statistics can be used for the different types of data and spoke in detail about the types of analyses, based on the expectations set by the objectives of the research. She also made sure that the participants understood by giving different hypothetical questions at the end, to make sure what type of analyses needs to be used.
Day 6: Communicating Researchand Publication. Dr Arkalgud Ramprasad, director, Ramiah Public Policy Centre, Bengaluru and professor emeritus of Information and Decision Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago. Dr Arkalgud Ramaprsad, presented a synoptic view of Communicating Research and mainly focused on an Ontological perspective of Communicating Research in terms of the different modes of communicating Research, the audience, the objective, and emphasised the point of choosing the right audience and right mode to communicate the research.
The valedictory program started with a short clip on St Agnes College and a brief report on the six-day National Level Research Enrichment Programme was given by Della.
The participants provided positive feedback and had a great learning session, Rajaram, a PG student from SDM College, Ujire, Raymond, a research scholar from Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, Abin, a UG student from Mount Carmel College, Kerala, Donna Smith, a PG Student from Mount Carmel College and Archana from Alva’s College, Moodabidri were a few who provided feedback and how the session has helped them in an immense manner.
The program ended with a vote of thanks by Deepa Kothari, the organising secretary of the programme.