Research and Evidence
For researchers and evidence-focused professionals: turn a broad topic into a research brief with a precise question, source map, evidence note and stated limits.
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Research and Evidence
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About this course
This course is for people starting workplace, academic or policy research who need a defensible first brief. You will define a population, context and time boundary, sort primary evidence from analysis and context, and record what each source supports, what it cannot show and what remains uncertain. This opening module turns a broad topic into a small, answerable research brief. You will learn how researchers separate a question from a claim, identify the audience, map likely sources, record evidence, and state limits. Before minute 5 you will have a practical one-page brief and a source triage checklist that you can show in an interview or use on your first working day. This module develops the search work behind a credible evidence base. You will turn concepts into search terms, combine synonyms and exclusions, search scholarly and professional collections, record retrieval decisions, and manage results without confusing visibility with quality. The practice follows the work of research assistants, analysts, librarians, and evidence teams: a search should be repeatable enough for a colleague to understand what you looked for, when you looked, and why you selected the material that reached the review stage. This module teaches the central judgement work of evidence practice: deciding what a source can support, comparing sources without flattening their differences, and making uncertainty visible. You will examine provenance, methods, samples, measures, bias, missingness, and transferability. You will then turn that appraisal into an evidence matrix and a short recommendation that distinguishes description, association, and causal explanation. The examples reflect research assistant and analyst tasks in universities, public services, charities, and commercial teams. This module follows evidence after retrieval: organising files, protecting sensitive material, cleaning records, tracing transformations, citing accurately, and combining findings without manufacturing agreement. You will practise a small data-handling workflow, distinguish source text from your own analysis, and write a synthesis that shows convergence, disagreement, and gaps. The focus is operational rather than legal or clinical. Follow the host organisation’s policy, approved access, retention rules, and escalation route, especially when research involves participants or confidential records. The final module turns documented evidence into communication that a real reader can use. You will structure an executive summary, choose tables and charts that preserve definitions, explain findings to a non-specialist, handle review and disagreement, and prepare a short portfolio story for interview. You will also practise handover, quality control, and post-delivery learning. The goal is not to make uncertainty disappear. It is to make the evidence, decision, limitation, and next action legible to the person who must act on the work.
What you'll learn
- Frame a broad workplace or academic topic as a precise research question with a population, context, and time boundary.
- Create a first-pass source map that distinguishes primary evidence, secondary analysis, and contextual material.
- Use a short evidence note to record what a source says, how it supports the question, and what remains uncertain.
- Translate a research question into concepts, synonyms, controlled vocabulary, and practical inclusion and exclusion rules.
- Run a staged search across scholarly databases, public records, organisational documents, and citation trails while preserving retrieval details.
- Build a defensible shortlist using relevance, provenance, date, method, and duplication checks rather than search ranking alone.
- Explain search decisions and missing evidence clearly in a research log and in an interview response.
Roles this course opens up
Typical job titles that ask for this skill.
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