Chevron Left
Back to Qualitative Research Methods

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Qualitative Research Methods by University of Amsterdam

4.6
stars
1,264 ratings

About the Course

In this course you will be introduced to the basic ideas behind the qualitative research in social science. You will learn about data collection, description, analysis and interpretation in qualitative research. Qualitative research often involves an iterative process. We will focus on the ingredients required for this process: data collection and analysis. You won't learn how to use qualitative methods by just watching video's, so we put much stress on collecting data through observation and interviewing and on analysing and interpreting the collected data in other assignments. Obviously, the most important concepts in qualitative research will be discussed, just as we will discuss quality criteria, good practices, ethics, writing some methods of analysis, and mixing methods. We hope to take away some prejudice, and enthuse many students for qualitative research....

Top reviews

KF

Dec 20, 2018

I found this a very useful way of getting a basic introduction to qualitative research methods, without just sitting down with some text books. The content was engaging and at the right level for me.

DR

Oct 8, 2016

The teacher is really passionate, everything's very clear and easy to understand. It's full of all the basic knowledge one needs to know about qualitative research methods to begin working with them.

Filter by:

326 - 350 of 424 Reviews for Qualitative Research Methods

By Alexandre P S

•

Jul 16, 2021

Realy good lectures, interesting exercises and fun videos. While the production is not as good as the other courses on the specialization from the Univ. of Amsterdam, Gerben Moerman is extremely enthusiastic and teaches very clearly. The downsides are the abscence of any kind of support from the team (where are those Forum moderators UvA?), some little explained topics (the ethics discussion is very shallow), and an overcomplicated exercise in week 5 (assignment D, took me 3 weeks to get the energy to finish it). I'm also disappointed that this course seems like a "drifting ship", with no helmsman/woman to guide it. There is a general sense of lack of supervision (see the blatant plagiarism), despite most students really making an effort to learn.

By Stella M

•

Jun 2, 2021

I took this course to refresh my knowledge of qualitative research methods. Prof. Moerman is a very inspiring teacher in both theory and practice. The first part of the course (about epistomology, ontology, hermeneutics, phenomonology etc.) is rather challenging but also very interesting, so I decided to do some extra background reading. The second part is more practical and useful in everyday work. I was surprised however that there are not many current theories or views in this course, I recognised a lot from the time I went to university. But all in all, it was a great course! Thank you, Prof. Moerman and staff of the University of Amsterdam for this opportunity to learn from the best in my own time and pace.

By Arwin v d P

•

Jun 20, 2017

This course is an excellent opportunity to gain knowledge on Qualitative Research. Prof. Gerben Moerman is one of the most excited teachers you'll ever 'watch' during any lesson, which makes it even more fun to watch all the lessons. On top of that, the course really touches upon the most important things about this kind of research in a very enjoyable (and not boring-lame-exhausting) way. You have to invest some serious time in doing your weekly tasks, but they are all interesting and easy to make you grab the essence of doing Qualitative Research. Overall, I enjoyed this course very much. It's a lot better than the experience I had at the faculty of religionstudies in Groningen, The Netherlands.

By Janis R

•

Sep 4, 2020

EXCELLENT lectures! The main negative is the lack of expert oversight. When students correct the work of other students without oversight, it is literally the blind leading the blind. One student marked me down on an issue that I know was correct, but no one of authority was there to say so. I confirmed my thoughts with a mentor, which took several days. Because of her answer, I know more about the issue, but the student who corrected me doesn't. He may still think his perspective is accurate. Other than that, I learned a lot and am very glad I took the course. I look forward to taking the next in the series.

By Tian R

•

Jun 17, 2020

Thank you for putting this course together. It provided a great introductory overview of qualitative research methods! In terms of feedback: I felt that the assignments could have been a bit more challenging. I felt some of them were too easy. Also, while completing my peer review tasks, I noted several times that many individuals failed to follow assignment instructions. Perhaps find a way to make these instructions more clear. With respect to course content, I would have liked to have seen more in depth information on how to conduct qualitative analysis (e.g., thematic analysis). Thanks again!

By Elina T

•

Aug 24, 2020

I truly enjoyed the course and the pedagogical lessons. Previously, I have struggled with the philosophical terms and I cannot claim of mastering them now but I definitely have a better clue. Thank you for the suggestions of literature, such as the book of Irving Seidman which I am now reading or the lectures of Graham Gibbs. The only small minus of the course is that I think qualitative analysis could have been given more space. Or are you planning a course on methods to analyse qualitative data?

By Stephan R

•

Jul 19, 2020

Overall a good course, covering a lot of relevant issues. Most of the assignments were really aligned with the content of the course (doing a real interview, analyzing and writing about it. The midterm and final test, however, do include few questions and correct answers which are absolutely debatable. I enjoyed the enthusiasm of Gerben, but his intensive non-verbal gestures distracted me from the content. I am sure he can do without it. Thanks and kind regards

By Vicken A

•

Jul 13, 2020

This is the second of 5-course specialization. The course is very well presented, from a very talented and devoted and knowledgeable instructor/professor. However, the course remains highly academic, with a huge focus on principles and theories. It is highly recommended for academic circles, particularly for the amount of bibliographic sources it provides (of which many are open source and available online).

By Samantha T

•

Feb 3, 2020

Overall - well-designed course from a learning perspective. From an examination perspective, often the midterm and final exams did not match up to the topics covered as it did in the Quantitative Research Methods. Being unfamiliar with the course content, I'm sure an expert opinion (someone who is quite familiar with the material) could see the parts examined being similar enough to the content.

By Anastasiya K

•

Mar 8, 2020

This course is great and can help you to understand that qualitative researches isn't 'the simple way' to do researches, but difficult too. But minus 1 star for tests – maybe, it's because i'm not a native English speaker, it was difficult for me to understand that the questions are in the test and correspond with the answers (such problems are not resolved in the lectures themselves).

By Julieta G

•

Nov 17, 2017

Excellent in everthing! Fun and very interesting! One thing only would make it perfect. Instead of having the slides as notes, the same info could be organised differently in a word document, as it would be easier to read and to print out. But other than that, it was excellent! The prof. is engaging and the lectures very well orgaqnised. Besides, difficult material was made easy.

By Luciano S

•

May 28, 2020

The course is interesting in general, specially the lectures. But I found myself confused with the written exercises. Instructions were sometimes different (or incoherent) from the evaluation process. The course could gain from a more straightforward grade system like the one in the quantitative research methods course.

By Stephanie S

•

Apr 13, 2016

Very enthusiastic lecturer, which made learning that much more enjoyable! The course content is fantastic. My only comment is the grading system for the assignments / how the assignments are designed - in my opinion the grading system could be improved to reflect efforts and correct submission done by students.

By zeba a

•

Sep 20, 2017

Its a good introductory course on the topic. Of course, the subject is too wide to fit in a month-long mooc but I felt it was a good primer and touched about key aspects of Qualitative Research Methods, with good references and sign-posting to further in-depth study on the specific topics.

By Danielle L

•

Nov 6, 2017

Overall, a very good course. I'm more analytically minded so I took it as a part of the sequence and there was a bit of a reckoning since it's not a way that I usually think. Regardless, the material was well presented and the lecturer is nothing if not enthusiastic.

By Celina T

•

Mar 6, 2020

This is an excellent course, very well explained by the enthusiastic instructor, but I give four stars because of the slides at the end of each lesson. Not always you can understand very well the content of the course because they seem incomplete.

By Rachael A

•

Sep 22, 2020

Some difficult topics to get through, but this is probably the best way to have them explained. Dr. Moerman was engaging and explained these topics well enough for the short online format available through Coursera.

By Ingo V

•

Jun 4, 2016

good; but not as good as the other modules in the specialisation; the instructions for the assignments are a bit too convoluted, clarity would be added not by adding more information, but by reducing the text.

By Marius P

•

Feb 10, 2016

good course, well thought through.

some of the lectures didn't quite get the message across clearly and some of the assignments didn't quite measure what they intended, but overall i was much impressed, thanks.

By Sandeep K

•

Jul 24, 2017

Good Course and provide me basic understanding of Qualitative Research Methods.I will be great if course PDF Transcript will be provided as in Quantitative course instead of Presentation Slides.

By Violet P C

•

Oct 20, 2021

Teaching method is very good. However, the requirement to do 5 Peer Reviews - I think - is too much. It takes your mind off the things you have learned. Otherwise, the program is great!

By Rafael d M B

•

Jul 5, 2020

It is better than the quantitative one, but the assignments are really really long and the minimum level of 80% on the final and midterm exams is very high. 70% would be good enough.

By deirdre d

•

Dec 3, 2015

it was a lot of work and there were some errors and issues, esp. trouble with peer review. the professor was dynamic and encouraging. content and most activities were very helpful.

By Athira S

•

May 13, 2020

This was my very first online course. I had good experience with the team, especially our lecturer was really encouraging. You could have asked us to submit the codes we made.

By Matthias J

•

Jun 5, 2017

Please provide the complete transcript of a week in pdf format like quantitative research methods?

The slides are too dark (black background) and don't look good in print.