Part I provides an introduction to issues related to research in general. It provides students with a framework for planning and conducting communication and advertising research (Topic 01) and introduces students to ethical considerations in research, including research ethics in an online environment (Topic 02).
Part II discusses sources of information in research. It includes key learnings on secondary information (Topic 03), and sampling (Topic 04).
Part III focuses on qualitative research. It first introduces students to a broad range of qualitative data collection techniques including qualitative interviewing, projective techniques, repertory grid, and laddering (Topic 05). Topic 06 discusses planning and conducting focus groups. Finally, students will be offered detailed guidance for the analysis of qualitative data (Topic 07).
Part IV compliments the qualitative discussion with a focus on quantitative research. Part IV¿s first segment (Section 1/3) consists of an overview of observation research (Topic 08), discussing human and automated observation of consumer behavior, including the observation of online behaviors. Topic 09 helps students understand the different options for collecting survey data and possible issues related to response rates.
The second segment of Part IV (Section 2/3) focuses on data collection. After a discussion of measurement and related issues (Topic 10), students will learn how to phrase and construct survey questions (Topic 11), and how to design a questionnaire (Topic 12).
Part IV´s last segment includes an overview of experimentation techniques (Topic 13) followed by an introduction to quantitative data analysis via descriptive and inferential statistics (Topics 14 and 15).