General provisions

The course is part of the Master's programmes in Game Design, 60 and 120 credits, and Master´s Programme in Transformative Game Design, 60 credits.

Entry requirements

15 credits at Master's level. Proficiency in English equivalent to the general entry requirements for first-cycle (Bachelor's level) studies.

Learning outcomes

Upon completing the course, students will be able to:

• identify and describe research methods from relevant subject areas, for example the humanities or social sciences
• identify relevant research questions in connection with previous literature
• effectively plan research projects including data collection and analysis
• carry out analytic-academic work of ongoing scientific research in the areas of games and game design
• discuss and take a critical attitude towards the used theories and methods
• discuss ethical challenges in a reflective manner, and
• present research findings in academic writing and/or orally.

Content

This course prepares the students for their thesis work based on social science and humanities theories and methods relevant to game design. Students will get a basic understanding of various methods in order to decide which ones they want to work with in their own research. The course offers students the possibility to dig deeper into their chosen methods in preparation for their thesis work. The course also gives students an overview over scientific methods as apart of academic literacy.

Methods will be selected from the humanities, which can include any of the following: textual analysis, formalism, political economic analysis, discourse analysis, critical analysis etc. The course will also feature methods from the social sciences, including some or all of the following: design-based research, practice-based research; observational, quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method data collection and analysis, etc. The course may also include additional methods from other domains of study.

Instruction

This course will consist of lectures, readings from academic texts on research methods and game design, and other curricular materials. Students are expected to participate actively in class discussions and other activities, like workshops. They will also work both individually and in groups on course assignments. Students will present their work in seminars and provide peer feedback.

For online instances of this course, seminars will take place through online discussions on our learning management system. Lectures will be prerecorded and made available online. Students will present their work in video recorded presentations.

Assessment

Assessment is based on active participation in seminars, workshops, and other course-related activities, the oral presentation of the research/design proposal, and the finalized thesis proposal that incorporates feedback from instructors and peers.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.