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Course syllabus - Research planning, 4.5 credits

Information about the course

  • Course code: FOID008
  • Third-cycle subject: Computer Science
  • School: School of Innovation, Design and Engineering
  • Responsible department: Computer Science and Software Engineering
  • Valid from: 2025-11-11
  • Established by: Dean of School
  • Decision date: 2025-11-20
  • Level of education: Third cycle level

Course objective

The course is primarily intended to focus on the research work needed to be done to complete a licentiate or doctoral project.

Course content

The content of the course is twofold.

1. The student shall familiarize with her research area and gain an understanding of the research areas of the other participating students. This includes identifying:

  • Core literature and seminal articles
  • Key conferences/workshops/journals
  • Leading researchers and research groups
  • Current research issues

2. The student shall design a research plan for her licentiate or doctoral project based on the items identified in the point above.

Intented learning outcomes

Upon completion of the course, the participants will be able to:

  1. Survey the literature and important research outlets within a specific field of study
  2. Devise specific research question(s) to address a selected research focus/area
  3. Select a sound research strategy appropriate to the research focus/area
  4. Develop a research design, including methodology, data collection and analysis, ethics considerations and actual plan to address the specific research questions to achieve a research goal

The intended qualitative targets in relation to the Higher Education Ordinance, appendix 2.

Knowledge and understanding

For the Degree of Doctor, the doctoral student shall demonstrate:

  • A1: broad knowledge and systematic understanding of the research field as well as advanced and up-to-date specialised knowledge in a limited area of this field, and
  • A2: familiarity with research methodology in general and the methods of the specific field of research in particular.

Specifically, the course focuses on research planning (A2) and introduces methods related to research in technical fields (A1).

Competence and skills

For the Degree of Doctor, the doctoral student shall demonstrate

  • B1: the capacity for scholarly analysis and synthesis as well as to review and assess new and complex phenomena, issues, and situations autonomously and critically,
  • B2: the ability to identify and formulate issues with scholarly precision critically, autonomously, and creatively, and to plan and use appropriate methods to undertake research and other qualified tasks within predetermined time frames and to review and evaluate such work,

Specifically, the course provides insights into complexity (B1) and lets the student practice writing scholarly texts in the systems field (B2).

Teaching formats

The course is given at MDU in Västerås and online.

The course is divided into three modules. Each module contains a joint workshop and an individual task. The workshops focus both on research planning elements, critically explained by the main lecturer of the course and discussed by all participants, and presentation of tasks by the students.

The tasks are intended to gradually and step by step lead the students to develop a sound research plan towards the nearest degree goal (Lic/PhD), which is based on the elements learned and discussed during the workshops. After each workshop, students submit a new draft of the research plan, which is a living document for the duration of the course. Reviewing each other's assignments are part of the course too.

Examination

OBN1 Active participation through presentations and discussions in lectures and seminars, with appropriate preparation (1.5 hp)

INL1 Compose a written report in the form of a research plan (3 hp)

Grade

Examinations included in the course are assessed according to a two-grade scale, fail or pass.

Grades are to be decided by a teacher specially appointed by the university.

A person who has not passed the regular examination shall be given the opportunity to retake the test.

Requirements

To participate in the course and the examinations included in the course, the applicant must be admitted to doctoral studies.

Selection criteria

Selection of applicants will be made in accordance with the ranking below.

  1. Admitted doctoral students at Mälardalen University in Computer Science, Electronics, or Medical and Health Engineering
  2. Admitted doctoral students at Mälardalen University in other subjects