Ed.D.: Doctor of Education

Research Methods or Methodology refer to the way(s) in which a researcher intends to gather information about his/her research problem. 

• Qualitative Methods involve collecting, managing, and analyzing non-numerical data (e.g. text, audio, video, or pictures) in the form of surveys, interviews, focus groups, case studies, observation, and more. 
• Quantitative Methods involve numerical data and mathematical or statistical analysis of such numbers as survey scores, lab results, or field studies. 
• Mixed Methods combine the two. 

The easiest way to find research studies is use the search box on the library's home page. Type the topic you're interested in, and either "qualitative research" or "quantitative research" next to it, as shown in the image below. (Handy searching tip: the quotation marks mean that the two words will be searched as a phrase, next to each other.)

Doctoral students are required to prepare a research proposal for their dissertation study. All doctoral projects that involve human subjects must be reviewed and approved by Franklin University's Institutional Review Board (IRB) to ensure the rights and welfare of human participants are protected. The research proposal will be included in the IRB application.

Anyone who conducts human subjects research at Franklin University must complete training before any research activities commence and before submitting a research proposal to the IRB for review. The Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) provides an online training course to satisfy this requirement and must be completed by all faculty, staff, and students involved in human subjects research. CITI educational courses help researchers to understand their obligations to protect the rights and welfare of human subjects in research. 

Please take the following steps to complete your CITI training: 

1. Log on to the CITI homepage: www.citiprogram.org and click on the Register link. You will register with Franklin University in this seven-step process. Please use your Franklin University email address, which will link your CITI record to Cayuse IRB.
2. Franklin learners must complete the Social and Behavioral Research (SBE) course. Additional elective courses are available but not required to conduct human subjects research at the University. The SBE course will take a few hours to complete, but you are not required to complete all modules in one sitting. 

Completing the CITI course will keep your training current for three years, after which time you will be required to complete a refresher course that updates your training for another three years. You will receive an email reminder from CITI when it is time to refresh your training. If your training expires during any human subjects research project, you must cease all research activities until your training has been updated.