Number of Credits

3

Teaching Hours

48

Offering School

School of International and Public Affairs

Course Teacher

Course Level

Postgraduate Level

Language of Instruction

English

First Day of Class

Monday, September 22nd, 2025

Last Day of Class

Monday, January 5th, 2026

Course Component

Lecture

Mode of Teaching

Synchronous

Meeting Time

Week 2-17: Mondays, 18:00-20:20 pm CST

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Time Zone

Beijing Time（UTC+8）

Course-specific Restrictions (e.g. Prerequisites / Major / Year of Study)

None.

Course Description

This is an introductory class on social science research. The primary goal of this course is to help students familiarize with social science discipline and some basic social research methods (including both qualitative and quantitative methods). A number of issues central to social science research will be discussed in the class, such as key terms, logics, data collection, design, analysis, and write-up.

The course is divided into six sections. The first section is a fundamental instruction. The second section is the key concepts and two logics of empirical research/ The third section is the data collection instrument introduction. The fourth section is the research design. The fifth section is the data collection. The last section is the research communication and write-up.

Syllabus

Course Assessment

1. Class Participation: 30%

2. Quiz: 30%

3. In-class presentation and report （the last class): 40%