School: Medical and Health Sciences

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Health Research Methodology
  • Unit Code

    HST2122
  • Year

    2025
  • Enrolment Period

    1
  • Version

    7
  • Credit Points

    15
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
    Online
  • Unit Coordinator

    Dr Brennen William MILLS

Description

This unit aims to develop students as critical consumers of published research. Students will gain knowledge of the main steps in the research process and of the range of research strategies and methods utilised by contemporary researchers. Students will also develop information-finding and critical thinking skills that will enable them to apply this research knowledge in order to assess the quality and applicability of research reports. This unit prepares students to utilise research as evidence in their professional practices.

Prerequisite Rule

Students must have completed either MAT1114, PST1107 or PSY1102.

K05 students - no pre-requisite unit required K89 students must have completed PST1107 K97 students must have completed MAT1114 Y02 students must have completed MAT1114 or PSY1102

Equivalent Rule

Equivalent to PST2111

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Apply research skills to access original research resources and interpret research data.
  2. Identify appropriate uses for quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research strategies in health research contexts.
  3. Critically evaluate the scientific merit and applicability of health research studies.
  4. Explain the principles and practices required to conduct ethical research.

Unit Content

  1. Introduction to research, the research process and evidence-based practice.
  2. Asking questions and searching for evidence.
  3. Reviewing literature.
  4. Qualitative research.
  5. Quantitative research.
  6. Levels of evidence.
  7. Statistics for the non-statistician.
  8. Sampling.
  9. Mixed-methods research.
  10. Ethics in research.

Learning Experience

ON-CAMPUS

Students will attend on campus classes as well as engage in learning activities through ECU's LMS

JoondalupMount LawleySouth West (Bunbury)
Semester 113 x 2 hour seminarNot OfferedNot Offered
Semester 113 x 1 hour tutorialNot OfferedNot Offered
Semester 213 x 2 hour seminarNot OfferedNot Offered
Semester 213 x 1 hour tutorialNot OfferedNot Offered

For more information see the Semester Timetable

ONLINE

Students will engage in learning experiences via ECU’s LMS as well as additional ECU learning technologies

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures are used to introduce the central concepts of the unit. On-campus students will have the opportunity to discuss research concepts and collaboratively evaluate example journal articles for quality and applicability. Online students will receive recorded lectures with discussion board forums facilitated to provide comparable opportunities for learning through interaction. Tutorials are facilitated workshops in which students undertake group activities related to the week’s lecture content. On-campus students meet weekly while online students are provided the opportunity to collaborate through weekly online live’ tutorials and strategic discussion board forums.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
ReportResearch Critique Part 115%
ReportResearch Critique Part 245%
ExaminationFinal Examination 40%
ONLINE
TypeDescriptionValue
ReportResearch Critique Part 115%
ReportResearch Critique Part 245%
ExaminationFinal Examination 40%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

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