What Does This Course Contain?

This course is a review of research terms, issues, concepts, and principles for non-research addiction professionals. The course describes the characteristics of the primary research approaches, including experimental, quasi-experimental, and nonexperimental research designs. It provides information about certain characteristics of studies that can diminish their ability to determine whether an observed outcome can be attributed to the intervention being studied and whether results from a research study can be generalized to other settings or populations. The course reviews the major principles of ethics in research, provides guidance about reading research articles, and provides an overview of fundamental statistical concepts.

Table of Contents

Module 1:  Research Basics
Module 2:  Experimental Designs
Module 3:  Quasi-Experimental Designs
Module 4:  Nonexperimental Designs
Module 5:  Surveys, Cases, Correlations
Module 6:  Assorted Designs
Module 7:  Internal Validity Threats
Module 8:  External Validity Threats
Module 9:  Qualitative Research
Module 10:  Ethics and Research
Module 11:  Reading Research
Module 12:  Statistical Concepts

Module 1:  Research Basics. This module is a brief overview of basic research issues, such as the basic steps of research and a description of quantitative and qualitative research.

Module 2:  Experimental Designs. This module reviews the essential features of the scientific method, describes the concept of the "research question," and examines the most rigorous of the research designs: the experimental research design (or true experiment), which can demonstrate that observed outcomes in a study can be attributed to the intervention.

Module 3:  Quasi-Experimental Designs. This module describes a research design that is similar to but less robust than the experimental research design. It reviews the characteristics and uses of the quasi-experimental research design, which can suggest but not demonstrate that the observed outcomes in a study can be attributed to the intervention.

Module 4:  Nonexperimental Designs. This module reviews a few research designs that do not include a comparison group or do not include baseline evaluations, and thus prevent the researchers from attributing an observed outcome to the intervention examined in the study.

Module 5:  Surveys, Cases, Correlations. This module examines a few types of research designs that are designed not to examine differences but to identify what currently exists: surveys, case studies, and correlational research designs.

Module 6:  Assorted Designs. This module reviews a variety of research issues and designs such as basic and applied research, observational and descriptive research, cross-sectional research, longitudinal research, and meta-analyses.

Module 7:  Internal Validity Threats. This module examines factors that can diminish the ability of a research study to determine whether an observed outcome can be attributed to an intervention: these factors are called threats to internal validity.

Module 8:  External Validity Threats. This module reviews factors that can diminish the extent to which results from a research study can be generalized to other settings or populations: these factors can be described as external threats to validity.

Module 9:  Qualitative Research. This module explores some of the theoretical foundations of qualitative research, which involves the collection and analysis of subjective information.

Module 10:  Ethics and Research. This module reviews the major principles of ethics in human research and the standards of ethical research practices that are designed to protect research subjects, researchers, institutions, and programs at which research is conducted.

Module 11:  Reading Research. This module describes the typical sections of published research articles and provides practical tips to consider when reviewing these sections.

Module 12:  Statistical Concepts. This module provides an overview of many of the major terms and concepts associated with statistics, such as random sampling, statistical significance, and various types of statistical tests.