RESEARCH PROPOSAL WRITING WORKSHOP

Purpose:

This module aims to maximize support to doctoral students intending to apply for research opportunities. It is therefore designed to prepare doctoral students with the essential concepts and tools for preparing and writing an effective research proposal. Participants attending the workshop will have the opportunity to draft a research proposal and gain feedback on writing submission from peers and a supportive critical reader.

To attend this module, participants should have a provisional research proposal or a potential problem that would be investigated.

Target Audience:

The module is aimed at:

• Doctoral students;
• Young academics and researchers who intend to improve their skills in helping students;
• Newly registered postgraduate students; and
• Anybody who interns enrolling for a doctoral study.

Learning outcomes:

Upon completion of this module, participants should be able to:

• Identify the reasons to pursue a doctoral study and whether the expectations are realistic.
• Explore the main requirements, structures and problems with undertaking a post graduate qualification.
• Demonstrate how to set a realistic, manageable and impactful research question.
• Describe and be able to implement the steps required in conducting a literature search, planning, organising and writing the literature review.
• Discuss what theoretical approach would be useful for the research proposal.
• Compare different research design and methodological choices.
• Summarise what you have learned from this course into a first draft of a research proposal.

Writing the Literature Review

Purpose:

This module introduces best practices for writing an effective literature review for a doctoral study. It is worthwhile to note that the format of a review of literature may vary from discipline to discipline. However, a literature review should demonstrate your overall understanding of the literature and develop an argument, often by answering specific research questions. It should be use to justifies the significance or interest of a research question, demonstrates a student professional competence in a field of research, critically reviews theory or methodological approaches.

Target Audience:

The module is aimed at:

• Doctoral students;
• Young academics and researchers who intend to improve their skills in helping students;
• Newly registered doctoral students; and
• Anybody who interns enrolling for a doctoral study.

Research Design and Methodology

This module is designed to capacitate research scholars in Africa on the various research methods available for supply chain research. The module will expose participants to the critical perspectives in supply chain research to make them more critical and reflective about their own research projects. It therefore seeks to enable participants disseminate research findings using the appropriate design and methodological choices; differentiate between quantitative and qualitative research approaches and equip them with the ability to identify methodological and statistical pitfalls.

Target audience:

The module is aimed at:

• Doctoral students;
• Young academics, lecturers and researchers who intend to improve research knowledge of skills;
• Faculty seeking direction on supervising research; and
• Anybody who wants to develop an understanding of research.

Learning outcomes:

At the end of this module, the audience should be able to:

• Understand and navigate the school of thought that guide research design and its methodologies.
• Select and define appropriate research problem and parameters.
• Prepare a project proposal with sound methodological choices.
• Use appropriate data collection strategies that has design coherence.
• Formulate inclusion/exclusion criteria and sound research instruments.
• Write and produce reports, articles and thesis with sound research methods.
• Review an article and submit the report.

Data Analysis and Interpretation for Beginners

Purpose:

Data Analysis is an ever-evolving discipline with lots of focus on new predictive modeling techniques coupled with rich analytical tools that keep increasing our capacity to handle big data. This module aims to equip postgraduate students with skills and knowledge to analyse, manipulate and interpret data. It will also assist participants to gain knowledge on how to use data to answer assessment questions, reviews some of the basic epidemiology and statistics underlying assessment and introduces you to the concepts of some frequently used measures in assessment. Take the opportunity to expand your knowledge of analytical methods and applications and conduct original research to inform complex decisions.

Target audience:

The module is aimed at:

• Doctoral students;
• Young academics, lecturers and researchers who intend to improve research knowledge of skills;
• Faculty seeking direction on supervising research; and
• Anybody who wants to develop an understanding of research.

Learning outcomes:

At the end of this module, the participants should be able to:

• Gain knowledge of the scope and practical application of data analysis.
• Constructing the right questions to ensure the best results
• Recognize which types of analysis are best suited to types of problems
• Collecting and organizing the right data for the questions being posed
• Selecting the right tools and techniques to analyze the data
• Identifying the relevancy of the data you can access
• Interpreting and translating data into actionable insights
• Applying analytical tools to your business questions

Writing Articles from your Thesis or Dissertation

Purpose:

This module provides strategies for writing articles from thesis or dissertations. For young researchers, the pressure to publish is immense. To establish their credibility in the science community, it is imperative for postdoctoral researchers to have at least a few publications to their name. To add to their woes, most new scholars find it daunting to write articles for publication and often find themselves struggling to even come up with a research question. Therefore, participants who attend this module will gain the skills and knowledge on how scientific research paper should be structured for success. Furthermore, they will gain some tips for a final check before you submit your manuscript to the journal.

Target audience:

The module is aimed at:

• Doctoral students;
• Young academics, lecturers and researchers who intend to improve research knowledge of skills;
• Faculty seeking direction on supervising research; and
• Anybody who wants to develop an understanding of research.

Learning outcomes:

At the end of this module, the participants should be able to:

• Understand why develop journal articles from thesis or dissertation
• Gain an understand the basics of publishing your research
• Know the purpose and rational of scientific journals
• Determine ways to select a suitable journal for your research
• Understand what peer-reviewed journals is and how they work
• Determine the ideal structure for a scientific journal article
• Understand the final checks before you submit to a journal

POSTGRADUATE SUPERVISION WORKSHOP FOR EMERGING SUPERVISORS

Purpose:

This module is designed to capacitate emergent postgraduate supervisors develop best practice in postgraduate supervision. Participants will be able to advance practical knowledge, skills and capabilities postgraduate supervision drawing from examples. The workshop also encourages and empower emergent supervisors who are looking for innovative ways of engaging with the challenges and opportunities of research supervision emerging from an African, local and regional contexts.

Target audience:

The module is suitable for:

• Emergent and experienced postgraduate research supervisors;
• Experienced postgraduate research supervisors who intend to improve their supervision skills;
• Internal examiners of research degrees;
• Directors of research studies; and
• Academic developers responsible for the professional development of supervisors.

Learning outcomes:

At the end of this module, the audience should be able to:

• Build postgraduate supervisory skills and capacity
• Create awareness of and the power of supervisory relationship;
• Understand the notion of scholarship to advance teaching and learning;
• Create an interactive and inclusive environment for student expectations and exchange of ideas and practices; and
• Provide a solid, holistic platform from which to build future supervision practices.

RESOURCE MOBILISATION AND GRANT MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP

Background:

This module is designed for individuals who wish to develop skills on resource mobilisation and grant management. It aims to build capacity of participants to increase their confidence to conceptualise, initiate and secure resources that align to their institution’s strategic plans. Furthermore, the workshop will build the capacity of participants with effective management skills of those resources for sustainability of the vision and missions of their projects and institutions.

This module will be facilitated by experienced researchers with track record of winning globally competitive grants, proven record of successful management and implementation of complex research projects.

Target audience:

This module has been designed primarily for:

• Individual wishing to develop skills on grant proposal writing
• Private organisation seeking to mobilise resource for their work
• Non-Governmental organisation seeking funding to support their work
• Governmental organisations seeking additional funds to support projects
• Post-doctoral fellows, and doctoral students seeking funds to conduct research in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this module, participants should be able to:

• Describe the concepts of resource mobilisation and grant writing
• Outline the rationale of grant proposal writing
• Describe the process of resource mobilisation and grant writing
• Explain the key requirements for successful grant proposal writing
• Develop and submit a wining proposal
• Develop a resource mobilisation strategy