Course Coordinator:

Prof. dr. Siswanto Agus Wilopo, SU, M.Sc., Sc.D.,

Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistician, and Demographer of The Department of Reproductive Health, Graduate Public Health Program, Faculty of Medicine, Gadjah Mada University

 Address                : Gedung IKM Lantai 1, Phone: +62-274-565076 or 548156

Email                     : sawilopo@ugm.ac.id

Class web-side  : https://elok.ugm.ac.id or http://gamel.fk.ugm.ac.id.

Course Description:

The course provides fundamental health research skills for students to work in research and applied settings. It focuses on issues involved in the design, conduct, and evaluation of health research. Each session will deal with skills and issues relevant to a specific stage of the research process. Students will experience and apply their knowledge through the development of a research proposal.

In this course the students will learn:

1.   The nature, role, and context of research in health
2.   Theoretical issues and approaches to research.
3.   Developing research questions and hypotheses.
4.   Sampling technique and data collection techniques
5.   Data processing and analysis
6.   Publication, socialization, and dissemination of research findings.

Prerequisite

It is highly recommended students have undergraduate research methods and statistics. The course requirements are intended to help students understand and apply the course material. The weekly discussion with the teaching assistant will test students’ understanding of the readings. The written assignments focus on the application of the course material to specific health development projects. Students should upload each assignment to the appropriate eLok or Gamel discussion thread by the deadlines posted.

General Learning Objectives:

 Upon completion of this course, each student should be able to do the following:

1.   Critique published health research,
2.   Develop a design for a research or evaluation project, and
3.   Understand the data collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination processes.

Specific Learning Objectives

After completing the course students will be able to: 

1. Describe the essential steps of the scientific method,
2. Conduct a literature review, critically evaluate and synthesize that literature, and identify gaps in the literature that warrant additional research,
3. Develop a conceptual framework for a study, showing the hypothesized causal variables and the expected outcomes,
4. Identify and critically analyze the basic components of a research proposal,
5. Identify different types of study design, including observational, pre-experimental, and experimental designs, and their inherent threats to internal and external validity,
6. Understand how survey research is used in health research and evaluation, in terms of choice of sampling techniques, determination of sample size, and approaches to writing survey questions,
7. Analyze qualitative and quantitative data and be familiar with electronic programs that facilitate this analysis,
8. Identify and use secondary data and existing information sources in research projects, and
9. Understand the process of interpreting analyzed data and disseminating results through presentation and publication.

Course Organization:

The lecture will be given once weekly or depending on our department’s schedule. In each topic, the lecturer will conduct the materials and discuss them with the class. The instructor will assign the exercises at the end of each session as stated in the lecture module. Exercises provide reinforcement of quantitative skills and specific content areas. They may be completed as written assignments or in-class discussions. During the course, students will experience and apply their knowledge through the development of a research proposal. See the detailed schedule provided.

Coordinator of Teaching Assistants

 1.       Dr. Abdul Wahab, MPH (awahab@ugm.ac.id)

           Address                : Gedung IKM Lantai 1 and Center for Reproductive Health

           Office hour         : Monday-Friday 12-16.30 pm and by appointment

Textbook/Module:

1. Portney, L. G.  and Gross, L (2020). Foundations of clinical research: applications to evidence-based practice (Fourth;4; ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.
2. Tolley, E. E.; Ullin, P R; Mack, N; Robinson, ET; Succop, SM (2016). Qualitative methods in public health: a field guide for applied research (Second;2; ed.). San Francisco, CA: Wiley.
3. Wilopo, SA (2022). Metodologi Penelitian Kesehatan: Dari Teori ke Aplikasi. In Draft

Videotaping:

Some lectures will be videotaped and available for viewing at the library.

Lecture Notes:

Copies of the lecture notes (PowerPoint or pdf Beamer) may be obtained from the class web.

Handouts:

Copies of course materials and homework can be obtained from the course coordinator. It is strictly available for registered students only. Due to copyright restriction student is not allowed to share this material with others. It is the student’s responsibility to follow the existing copyright law.

Software:

For writing, Report students can use Microsoft Office or LaTeX and EndNote or similar Reference Managers.

Lecture Topics

The lecture will cover methodological theories and their application to public health research. It will be given at least twice a week. Each session is about 100 minutes. There will be 14 sessions of lectures during this class (see the following Table Class Calendar: 2022-2023). 

Laboratory Exercise

Students will be given the opportunity to explore further details of the lecture materials in the form of discussion and exercise in the class. The teaching assistants are assigned to lead this class discussion and exercise. Their tasks provide student’s better understanding of the lecture materials and problem sets for the homework/assignment.

Problem Sets for Homework

Problem sets require the use of a text editor and reference manager. The homework should be submitted to the teaching assistant on time. The deadline for the submission will be announced in the class or laboratory exercise.

Assignments/Grading

Graded is based on the assignment and class attendance. All assignments and exams should be submitted in the electronic form to avoid plagiarism. Students who conduct plagiarism will not be given a grade and she/he has to retake a similar class next year.

Projects Proposal as Basic for the Student’s Grade

 Students can either choose projects that they are already familiar with or proposals for their future thesis. Ideally, the student should prepare their work for the incoming thesis.  Following are assignments for their writing proposal step.

Each student should submit a document outlining the introduction, justification of the research problems, primary and secondary questions, and aims or goals of the study in Bahasa Indonesia or the English language. The total score for the assignment is 20% of the total grade score.  The student is expected to cite at least 10 articles relevant to the research problem selected. The article selected should be newly published with at most 3 current review articles and other original research articles. It is preferable that all publications are indexed in PubMed or Scopus data basis. The student should use reference managers, such as EndNote or other similar types, and use the Harvard style for the list of references. This assignment should start with an introduction that explains the reason for selecting the topic. The research problem should be written based on the literature cited. The primary research question should be one or at most two questions. The other related research question should be considered a secondary research question. The aims or objectives of the study should be clearly defined with the intention to answer part of the research problem and question. This assignment should be approximately 1000-1500 words, although the exact length may vary depending on the precise scope of the selected topic. Students will receive written feedback on their memos from a small group of classmates and discuss this feedback during class.

The student should submit a mini-review of their topic with 1500-2000 words. This is not a textbook type of review article, but it is a critical appraisal of selected articles from the electronic library at UGM. The student is expected to cite at least 15 articles relevant to the research problem selected. The article selected should be newly published with at most 5 current review articles and other original articles. It excludes articles already cited in a previous assignment. It is preferable that all publications are indexed in PubMed or Scopus data basis.  Theoretical and research frameworks should be layout. At the end of this review, the student should propose a hypothesis for their quantitative study. The student who intends to use qualitative study might propose study questions only. The hypothesis should be consistent with the study question related to primary and secondary questions. Remember that hypothesis can be viewed as a temporary answer to the study question.

Each student should submit the proposed research method in 1500-2000 words. This part should be written using the established guideline, such as STROBE (https://www.strobe-statement.org/index.php?id=available-checklists) and Consort (http://www.consort-statement.org/). This assignment should contain a few separate components. First, the document should select one research design and argue why this is the best design for this study, explaining precisely why others are not the ideal choice for his/her study.   Second, this part of the proposal should describe the setting, locations, and relevant dates, including periods of recruitment, exposure, follow-up, and data collection. Third, the participant should be selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Fourth, clearly define all outcomes, exposures, predictors, potential confounders, and effect modifiers. Give diagnostic criteria, if applicable. Fifth, for each variable of interest, give a plan for sources of data and details of methods of assessment (measurement). Describe the comparability of assessment methods if there is more than one group. Six, describe any plan to address potential sources of bias. Seventh, explain how sampling and the study size are planned. Eight, explain how quantitative variables will be handled in the analyses. If applicable, describe which groupings are going to be selected and why. The nine, statistical methods selected should be explained in detail. For the qualitative study, the analysis method should be clearly spelled out, including how to triangulate the data. Computer software should be explained for future analysis.  

Students are expected to come to laboratory class each day with at least two questions and/or informed comments on the discussion material. These questions are used to mark class attendance. Students are also expected to engage actively in class discussions or small group discussions during laboratory exercises. They are expected to be professional and constructive in their oral and written interactions with other students and with the professor and teaching assistants. Students are expected to attend all class sessions. Absences will result in a reduction in the student’s participation grade.

Class Website:

We will post homework assignments and other course materials on a course website. The address is https://elok.ugm.ac.id/ or http://gamel.fk.ugm.ac.id.