Teaching Introductory Graduate Research Methods Course: Student-Centered Approach Reflections from Practice.

Teaching research methodology is one of the core components of various degree programmes. As producing a piece of research is a key characteristic that differentiates academic education from vocational training. More so, research methodology courses are expected to go beyond providing students the foundation to produce research but to also teach students real-life thinking skills and reasoning. This calls for teaching research methodology in manner that students develop deep approaches to learning which will enhance students' engagement with the subject matter resulting in improved analytical and conceptual thinking skills. However research methods is one of the challenging university course to teach. Especially when students hold persistent unfavourable attitudes toward research methods failing to perceive the link between research methods and overall degree program. In the Information Technology and Information Systems domain the subject matter is varied covering areas such as technology, processes and human aspects relating to technology. As such researchers in these two domains have a range of methodologies when planning and conducting research. This paper presents a reflection on adopting a student centred approach towards teaching research methodology course to three different groups of fourth level university students. In this paper the strategies for facilitating deep learning in teaching research methods and research methods in the Information Systems domain will be discussed. In addition reflections on the use of a student centred approach, student experiences and strategies used. The experiences and strategies relate to facilitating deep learning. The experiences are focused on topic identification, conducting and writing up the literature reviews, developing an understanding of the research methodology inclusive of data analysis and presenting the research report. In conclusion lessons learned are presented and recommendation made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]