RSCH7860 is Capella's foundational research-methods course, serving as the entry point into doctoral-level research for students across multiple programs — psychology, education, social work, business, health sciences, and information technology. Its cross-program design reflects an institutional commitment to establishing a common research-methods vocabulary and competency baseline that all doctoral students share, regardless of discipline.
What "survey of research methods" actually covers
Breadth-first exposure to the research landscape
- Scientific methods of inquiry: The course introduces the major research paradigms (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods) and their underlying philosophical assumptions — positivist/post-positivist, constructivist/interpretivist, pragmatist — giving students the conceptual map needed to understand where different research approaches come from and why they reach different kinds of conclusions
- Ethical considerations of research: Covers the ethical framework governing human-subjects research — informed consent, institutional review boards (IRBs), confidentiality, risk-benefit analysis, and the historical incidents (Tuskegee, Milgram, Stanford Prison) that shaped current protections — ensuring all doctoral students understand their ethical obligations before conducting research
- Validity and reliability: Introduces the fundamental concepts of research quality — internal and external validity, construct validity, statistical conclusion validity, and reliability — that students will apply and deepen throughout RSCH7864 and RSCH7868
Becoming educated consumers and creators of research
RSCH7860's framing — "educated consumers and creators" — captures the dual purpose of doctoral research training. Students must be able to critically evaluate the research produced by others (reading published studies with enough methodological sophistication to assess whether a study's conclusions are actually supported by its design, data, and analysis) and also begin developing the capacity to design and conduct their own research. The "survey" designation means this course prioritizes breadth of exposure over depth in any single methodology, establishing the broad foundation that the subsequent quantitative (RSCH7864) and qualitative (RSCH7868) courses then deepen.
Research design skills applied to students' fields of interest
The course explicitly connects research methodology to each student's specific field of interest rather than teaching methods in the abstract. This application-oriented framing means a psychology doctoral student, a DSW student, and a DBA student sitting in the same course section are all learning the same methodological principles but applying them to the research questions, literatures, and practical problems specific to their own disciplines — ensuring the research-methods foundation is immediately relevant rather than purely theoretical.
RSCH7860 assignments include research design analyses, ethical review exercises, and methodology evaluation papers
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Frequently asked questions
Using a single foundational research-methods course across all doctoral programs rather than separate discipline-specific versions serves several pedagogical and practical purposes. Pedagogically, the fundamental principles of research methodology — the logic of inquiry, ethical obligations in human-subjects research, the concepts of validity and reliability, the distinction between quantitative and qualitative paradigms, the structure of a research design — are genuinely common across disciplines. A well-designed study in psychology follows the same foundational logic as a well-designed study in education, social work, business, or health sciences, even though the specific research questions, populations, and methodological conventions differ. By teaching these foundational principles together, Capella establishes a common vocabulary and quality standard that all doctoral students share, regardless of discipline. The discipline-specific application happens within the course itself (students apply methods to their own field of interest) and deepens in subsequent coursework (RSCH7864 and RSCH7868 for quantitative and qualitative methods, then the discipline-specific research courses within each program). This structure also exposes doctoral students to research questions and methodological thinking from outside their own discipline, which can be genuinely enriching — a DSW student learning about randomized controlled trial design alongside a psychology student gains a cross-disciplinary perspective that a social-work-only research course would not provide.