Research-based development (5cr)

Objective

You know the needs of research and development work of your own professional and you can responde to them purposefully.

You are able to draw R&D plan and you know how to use different kind of approaches and methods.

You can work an active role in R&D project.

You know how to write R&D reports and use the source of the reference system.

Content

What is research and development work?
What kind of stages R&D process include?
What kind of methods research and developing can be done?
How to report and use the source of the reference system?

Evaluation

Student can

a. find, study, produce and assess critically multidisciplinary data in their field of expertise.

b. solve demanding problems in research, development and innovation activities.

c. assess and manage independently individuals’ and teams’ operations.

e. assess different strategic approaches and justify their use in terms of management and development.

f. work independently in the expert duties of their professional field or as entrepreneurs.

g. communicate proficiently and systematically in their spoken and written native language and in one foreign language.

Course material

The course page in Xamk Learn will include course presentations as well as other materials related to the course.

It is recommended for the students reading the following books:
- Kumar, R. Research Methodology: a step-by-step guide
- Alvesson M., 2024 Constructing research questions: doing interesting research (Kaakkuri)
- Lahman M., 2022 Writing and representing qualitative research (Kaakkuri)
- Silverman D., 2024 Interpreting qualitative data (Kaakkuri)

Study forms and methods

Research and Development (R&D) skills are essential for innovation, competitiveness, and growth in hospitality and service industries. R&D requires collaboration and communication with various stakeholders, such as customers, users, partners, suppliers, investors, or regulators.

This course is designed to acquaint the students with understanding of research methodology and to enable to use statistical analysis. After completing the course, the students will be able to apply their knowledge and skills to developing research tools both in quantitative and qualitative research, and collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data. Students will be also familiarized with ethical issues.

RDI and work-related cooperation

The assignments are based on the needs of operators in the field.
Guest lectures will be given by representatives from the world of work as well as company visits are organised for the students.

Timing of exams and assignments

The course includes scheduled tasks. All course tasks are to be fulfilled by a certain deadline. The deadlines of each assignment and studied topic will be indicated in the beginning of the course in the course page in Xamk Learn.

Contact days in Mikkeli campus, 08.04., 15.04., 22.04., 29.04 and 06.05. at 09.00 - 16.00.

Student workload

The course is 5 ECTS and it is to be completed in English. 1 ECTS means approximately 27 hours of student workload related to studying the course material, fulfilling the course assignments and acting as a group member. Contact days 5 x 8 hours, independent learning, group work and assignments 135 hours totally

Course part description

The course content and all related information is published in Xamk Learn - digital learning environment.

THE COURSE CONTENT CONSISTS OF THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:
The concept of research and development process
Research aim, objective, hypothesis, variables and sampling
Data collection techniques and methods of data analysis
Research report writing and ethical issues

Further information

This course is created for Post-Graduate Diploma students degree programme Tourism and Service business.

Evaluation scale

1-5

Assessment methods and criteria

The course will be assessed on a 1-5 scale, where 1 is "fair" and the lowest acceptable grade and 5 is "excellent" and the highest grade. Each task will be assessed individually and as the certain percentage of the final grade.