Bahir Dar University, Engineering Faculty

School of Civil and Water Resources Engineering

Course title: Scientific Research Methods
Course code: Weng 7101
Credit Point: 3
Prerequisite: The successful completion of all the modules
Academic Year: 2013
Target group: Post Graduate Students, Hydraulic Engineering groups
Semester: 2nd year, I Semester
Course manager: Dr. Essayas K./Mr. Temesgen E.
Consultation hour: (Monday, 2:00-4:00 PM)

1. Course description

The course is designed to provide the students with Composition of scientific research proposals,
data collection, analysis and evaluation; styles of thesis and scientific paper writing, including
paper organization, style, grammar and appearance in addition to technical content;
seminar preparation and presentation.

2. Objectives of the course

Upon completion of the research methodology course, the participant will:

• Have a good knowledge of various research types and research methodologies applied in civil
engineering;
• Comprehend suitable ways for doing integrated research as well as reporting and
communicating research results;
• Formulate clear and scientifically testable MSc-level research questions that can potentially
lead to new insights in advancing the frontier within Civil Engineering and addressing some
practical and societal problems;
• Demonstrate his/her expertise and competency through the formulation of well structured
and content rich literature review, problem statement as well as logical and analytical research
methodology;
• Acquire some skills to critically judge and evaluate the relevance of certain findings in the
selected scientific topics; distinguish among various categories of information resources (e.g.,
scholarly, primary sources, technical reports);

3. Methodology

To fulfil the objectives of the course the following methodologies are going to be implemented:
i.) Lectures
The lectures will provide theoretical and practical understanding of the subject matter.
ii.) Group work
The main objective of this group exercise is to give the students the opportunity to collectively
discuss and use some of the knowledge they acquired from the lectures. The core activities are:
students will first critically read recent three to four journal articles within the broader field of their
respective specializations. From the articles, they will identify research and knowledge gaps and
accordingly formulate specific research questions. Using the research questions as the basis, the
students will retrieve additional relevant information and prepare well articulated and content rich
(half to one page) introductory, problem description as well as research methodology notes.
Some of the theories which are going to be presented in the lecture will be analyzed as well as
demonstrated in the group work.

Peer-review

The peer review process is a crucial component of academic research. Ideally, it supplies a
mechanism for independent, anonymous evaluation and assessment of new contributions to a
particular field by a number of its established experts (usually between 3 and 5). For this course, you
will engage in a peer review exercise, by carefully reading and assessing the research design and
methodology of an as-yet-unpublished/published Hydraulic engineering research article.

You will be given different articles to choose from, which will span a variety of disciplinary and
methodological approaches. You will select one paper only for your review. Using course readings
and any relevant published (peer-reviewed) academic literature that you find, you will answer
review questions

iii.) Development of full research proposal including presentation will take the major part of the course
assessment.

4. Assessment methods

Group work and presentations……………….…............. 100%

Anything graded will be returned to you so you can track your progress. You may meet your
instructor to verify your grade at any time during the semester.

5. Grading

Each student’s final letter grade and number grade will be based on Article 9 of Academic
Regulation for engineering program of Bahir Dar University.

6. Polices

First and for most the University senate legislation and procedures will be strictly followed. A
student who fails to attend all sessions because of any reason should have a minimum of 85%
 attendance for lecture (Art 84, University Senate legislation). Article 9 of Academic Regulation
for engineering program requires 100% attendance for Lab sessions.

Some of the course specific polices /procedures are:

• The students need to submit all the assignments. Late submission of assignments will
only be accepted under extraordinary circumstances and must be cleared first with
instructor.
• If you let someone copy your work, you are as guilty as s/he. Please don’t get in
trouble by plagiarizing the work of others
• Switched off your cell phone while getting into the classroom

7. Contents
1. Unit 1: The concept of research
2. Unit 2: Types of research
3. Unit 3: Process in research proposal development
4. Unit 4: Process in conducting research
5. Unit 5: Research ethics
6. Unit 6:Reporting research findings

8. Getting help

Your instructor’s most important job is helping you. If you are stuck, get help; visit your instructor
for an appointment.

Approved

Dr. Essayas K./Temesgen E.

Course Manager Signature

Bitew G.
D/Director For WREE Signature

Dr. Seifu A.
School Director Signature