RCSH 296A - Introduction to Biomedical Research Methods - Student Information

Course Goals and Student Learning Outcomes

The course goals and Student Learning Outcomes (SLO’s) provided below will be the basis of most assignments, projects, and examinations in this course.  “Course goals” are what students will learn this semester, while “student learning outcomes” are what students will be able to do with their newly-gained knowledge.

Students successfully completing this course will be able to demonstrate the following:

  1. Describe research in biomedical science and engineering

  2. Apply basic terminology used in biomedical research

  3. Discuss the ethical considerations involved in biomedical research and historical events that prompted

  4. Conduct a literature review of previous research

  5. Engage in inquiry and analysis for biomedical research

    • Identify an innovative and focused biomedical topic that addresses significant yet previously less explored aspects of the topic

    • Synthesize and critically evaluate in-depth information from existing literature

    • Describe the logic and process of hypothesis testing

    • Identify characteristics of experimental and other research designs

    • Compute and interpret appropriate descriptive statistics from a dataset

    • Construct and interpret tabular/graphical presentations of data

  6. Conduct and interpret basic inferential statistics

  7. Compose research reports using the standard biomedical journal format

  8. Disseminate research findings through concisely written communication methods

  9. Clearly present research findings through oral communication methods

  10. Demonstrate

General Resources

  • Getting It Right: R&D Methods for Science and Engineering, Author(s): Peter Bock and Bettina Scheibe, ISBN: 978-0-12-108852-1

  • The course will generally utilize the campus Beachboard to provide course materials through the “content” feature and to collect assignments via the “Dropbox and Turn-it-in” features.

  • Library resources

  • Lynda/LinkedIn Learning (Access through your campus Single Sign-on)

Lecture and In-Class Activities Modules

  1. Introduction to the Scientific Method

  2. Types of biomedical research

  3. Introduction to hypothesis-driven and curiosity-driven research approaches

  4. Ethics in scientific research

  5. Research Strategy

  6. Fundamentals of experimental design

  7. Time management skills and project responsibilities

  8. Introduction to Scientific literature searching

  9. Keeping a laboratory notebook and computer records

  10. The Research Report

  11. Basic data analysis and statistics

Assignments

Assignments described here are examples of assignment types used in this course.  Assignments within a specific semester’s offering may include similar assignments to these, but the number of assignments, grade weighting, and specifics of assignment responsibilities are in under the purview of the instructor in that semester.

  1. Scientific Methods Assignment

  2. Structured Problem-Solving Assignment

  3. Article Critique

  4. Research Paper Drafts

  5. Basic Statistics Assignment

  6. Oral Presentation