Research methodology education in computing: Arrangements and results from two courses

Research methodology education is one of the less studied and discussed areas of computing education. Underplaying methodological education starts from computing curricula, which discuss methodology to different degrees, depending on the branch of computing. In computer science education research, programming courses have been analyzed through and through, but methodology courses in computing are largely devoid of course descriptions, analytic studies, and experimental studies. This paper presents the learning objectives, contents, and arrangements for a fully online graduate level course on research methodology and research design in computing. The course was run twice in a relatively large school of computing (6915 students) and it included students from a neighboring institution of the same size. Students´ (N=136) learning was analyzed from multiple viewpoints. Their final work was analyzed qualitatively by course facilitators as well as scored on a 90-point scale. Their coursework was qualitatively reviewed and graded by their peers and facilitators. The effect of students´ learning approaches to course results was analyzed using Biggs´ R-SPQ-2F questionnaire. Student feedback was collected using a slightly modified course feedback questionnaire of the university. This paper presents the course arrangements, course results, and analysis of students´ learning.