Analyzing Collaborative Research Projects regarding Topic, Methodology and Media

Abstract

In a transnational cooperation, master's students from three economic-/technical master courses are working in interdisciplinary learning groups for a research project on the main topic ‘Ethical Aspects of Digital Communication’. The students are going through the entire research process from phrasing the research question, the choice of an applicable research method up to the conference presentation. This contribution evaluates the students' research papers with regards to the thematic gaps the students identified, their chosen research methods and their progress. For this purpose, the assignments of four years have been analyzed regarding their topics, methodologies and forms of communication. Moreover, the paper discusses students' media usage for research purposes and also their perceived usefulness. Topic choices include for the big part protection of personal data, transparency, communication behavior, while methodology choice is more heavily weighted towards quantitative methods. The paper discusses media tools the student groups used, many of which are chat based or shared spaces services. Another emphasis is on the impact of the integrated peer reviews on the final articles. The research highlights implications for the design, implementation and supervision of graduate research projects.