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The Open University

Carrying out research for policy and advocacy work

The Open University via OpenLearn

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Overview

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How can you effectively influence decision makers to change laws, regulations or policies? How can your idea to improve an issue or problem be adopted by those in power? If you are involved in law reform or policy work, then this free course, Carrying out research for policy and advocacy work, is for you. Whether you are employed as a policy officer or carrying out voluntary work, this course will explain how to present clear and effective evidence to support your proposals. It will explain how to design, carry out and present research to support your policy project.This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course W360 Justice in Action.

Syllabus

  • 1 What is policy research?
  • 2 Research ethics
  • 2.1 What are the most important ethical rules?
  • 2.2 Research ethics in practice
  • 3 Research methodology
  • 3.1 Research methods
  • 3.2 A research plan
  • 4 Carrying out empirical research
  • 4.1 Literature review
  • 4.2 Freedom of information requests
  • 4.3 Designing surveys
  • 4.4 Carrying out research interviews and focus groups
  • 4.5 Documentary research
  • 5 Analysing the data
  • 5.1 Statistical analysis
  • 5.2 Thematic analysis
  • 5.3 The importance of values
  • 6 Writing the report
  • 6.1 Presenting quantitative and qualitative data

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Reviews

5.0 rating, based on 1 Class Central review

5 rating at OpenLearn based on 2 ratings

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  • Profile image for Robyn Riggans
    Robyn Riggans
    I really enjoyed this course! It gave me a clear and easy to understand overview of how to do research for policy and advocacy work. The mix of practical activities and clear explanations made it easy to follow, especially the parts about ethics and presenting data. The resources at the end were a nice bonus for learning more. Overall, I’d definitely recommend this course to anyone interested in policy or research, it’s a great starting point!
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