HELSEF4410 – Introduction to Qualitative Methods

Course content

The students will learn basic concepts and approaches in qualitative methodology. Following the course, the students will be able to explain the fundamental principles for conducting qualitative health research. Students will develop a good understanding of what type of research questions that can be answered using qualitative methods and describe the main methods used in qualitative health research. Through lectures and seminars, students will learn different strategies to produce and analyse qualitative data. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to develop a qualitative research design and critically reflect on strengths and limitations of qualitative research designs. Students will learn to identify and reflect upon ethical challenges in qualitative research.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• explain the basic fundamentals of qualitative research
• understand basic concepts and approaches in qualitative methodology
• understand what type of research questions that can be answered using qualitative methods.
• describe the main methods used in qualitative health research
• explain quality criteria of qualitative research

Skills

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• discuss the fundamentals of qualitative research
• develop a qualitative research design
• produce qualitative data
• apply basic principles of qualitative data analysis and present qualitative data
• critically discuss qualitative research designs and their applications in health research
• discuss the strengths and limitations of qualitative research designs

General competence

You will be able to:

• critically evaluate qualitative research methodology
• reflect upon ethical and scientific standards of qualitative research
• identify and reflect upon ethical challenges in qualitative research

Admission to the course

This course is only available for students at the following master's programmes:

• International Community Health (master's two years)
• Tverrfaglig helseforskning (master – to år)
• Folkehelsevitenskap og epidemiologi (master – to år)

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

Overlapping courses

• 5 credits overlap with HELSEF4200 – Forskningsmetoder og forskningsetikk (discontinued).
• 4 credits overlap with INTHE4016 – Qualitative Methodology (discontinued).

Teaching

The course runs in a period of three weeks and consists of lectures and seminars.

Each seminar follows the lectures.

In the seminars, the students do exercises and assignments.

Compulsory activities:

• Group assignment which runs parallel with the lectures and seminars.
• Oral presentation of the compulsory group assignment.
• 80 % attendance in the seminars is required to be eligible to take the exam. Attendance will be registered.

A student who has completed compulsory instruction and coursework and has had these approved, is not entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework. A student who has been admitted to a course, but who has not completed compulsory instruction and coursework or had these approved, is entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework, depending on available capacity.

Examination

Home exam.

All compulsory activities must be approved prior to taking the exam.

Examination and grading at The Faculty of Medicine.

Language of examination

The examination text is given in English. You may submit your response in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about the grading system.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.