A two days Capacity Building Workshop-I on Research Methodology was organized under IoE Project ‘Health care needs and practices in Indian men and women with Reproductive System cancer’ (UoH/IoE/RC1/RC1-20-030) on 17th and 18th of May 2021 by the faculty team of the IoE project of University of Hyderabad. The workshop was a part of the collaborative project of the faculty from the Centre for Health Psychology, School of Medical Sciences, and the School of Management Studies (SMS). Dr. G. Padmaja, Dr. C. Vanlalhruaii from Centre for Health Psychology, Dr. Ranjith Dehury and Dr. Punam Singh from School of Management studies are the faculty team of the project. The workshop conducted was the first in the series of capacity building workshops.
Methodology plays a vital role in shaping the research process and outcome. The present workshop focused on applied research methodology covering data collection methods, analysing the data, and the latest software use for data analysis. This workshop was for Ph.D researchers and scholars working in behavioural sciences, health care studies, and social sciences. Around 140 participants were finally selected from more than 680applicants across India. Participants engaged in hands-on experience, and interaction with various expert resource persons in all the topics covered during the workshop.
The workshop was inaugurated by honorable Vice Chancellor of UoH Prof. Appa Rao Podile. In his inaugural address, Prof. Podile emphasised on the role of cutting edge methodological innovations for high quality research. He also highlighted the role of IoE projects in creating conducive environment for improvement of quality of research among University faculty and students. Addressing the gathering, the Dean I/c, School of Medical Sciences, Prof. P. Prakash Babu pointed to importance of the role of medical school for high quality and wide range of applied research and lauded the team for the research proposed in the very important area of cancer research. He portrayed the importance of cancer research and its widespread frontiers. The Dean School of Management, Prof. P. Jyoti lauded role of collaborative research for academic achievement and illustrated about the emergence of the collaborative efforts from the team. She wished that more such collaborative efforts be initiated by the faculty for encouraging interdisciplinary research.
The technical sessions of day one started with the overview of research methodology and the process of research provided by Prof. B. Raja Sekhar, Pro-Vice chancellor II, University of Hyderabad. In his session, he highlighted the details about the importance of research methodology. Continuing the details of research methodology Dr. NDS Naga Seema, Dr. G. Padmaja, and Dr. Suvashisa Rana elaborated on sampling, data collection methods, and principles of measurement and scaling respectively with illustrative details and wide range of discussion with the participants. Dr. Sitanshu Sekhar Das of Rajagiri Business School, Kochi, Keraladiscussed inferential Statistics with live data sets from already published high quality papers.
On the second day Dr. P. Murugan elaborate about the theory and practices in the subjects like exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Prof. C. R. Rao, and Prof. Salman Moiz provides hand on training on various statistical packages for application in social sciences research. Dr. R.K. Dehury discussed the importance of qualitative research and methods thereof to carry out the research. Dr. Punam Singh concluded the workshop with vote of thanks on behalf of project team. The organizing faculty team proposes that the participants learn progressively through the series of workshops, various software features in the statistical analysis of the data. The participants gave very positive feedback and wished that the team continues providing such effective learning platforms further.