Foundational Research Modules

In 2021-2022, Bass Connections partnered with experts across campus to offer short modules designed to provide foundational knowledge in common research practices. Recordings of these modules are linked below and accessible via Warpwire to all Duke users.

We encourage current teams and other members of the Duke community to use these recordings. Campus partners, such as Duke Libraries, are also willing to partner with Bass Connections teams to dig deeper into topics below. Please contact us if you are looking for additional resources for your team. 

Module Topics Covered
Project Planning and Communication for Teams

In this session, Bass Connections provided tips and best practices for managing complex, team-based projects, including:

  • Project scoping
  • Project charters and project planning
  • Working on teams
  • Communicating within teams
Documentation and Stuff Management

In this session, the Duke Center for Data and Visualization Sciences shared best practices for documenting and organizing research materials for teams, including:

  • Shared folders
  • File naming conventions
  • Data management tools
  • Managing data for sharing and reproducibility
  • Types of documentation (readme files, research notebooks, and documenting for future use)
Literature Reviews

In this session, Duke Libraries provided guidance on how to conduct a literature review, including:

  • What is a literature review?
  • How do you do one?
  • What makes a good source?
  • General search strategies
  • Choosing a citation management software
  • Using subject area librarians
Qualitative Research Design

In this session, the Duke Social Science Research Institute introduced qualitative research methods and practices, including:

  • When should you use qualitative research?
  • Developing an interview/focus group instrument
  • Conducting focus groups
  • Conducting interviews
  • Note taking, transcription and coding (in brief; see later session on analysis)
Survey Design

In this session, the Duke Social Science Research Institute introduced best practices in survey design, including:

  • When should you use surveys?
  • Survey design
  • Survey administration
  • Avoiding survey bias
Analyzing Qualitative Research Data (Including Using NVivo)

In this session, the Duke Social Science Research Institute introduced qualitative coding, with a focus on NVivo (software for coding qualitative research data), including:

  • What is qualitative analysis?
  • How do you develop and apply coding?
  • What is NVivo and how do you get it?
  • How to use it
Community Engaged Research

In this session, the Duke Social Science Research Institute shared best practices for community engaged research, including:

  • Why to conduct community engaged research
  • Developing reciprocal partnerships
  • Ethical engagement
  • Understanding and respecting local context
  • Stakeholder engagement and management
Data Analysis and Workflow Management

In this session, the Duke Center for Data and Visualization Sciences provided tips for reproducible computational analysis, including:

  • Finding and using existing data sources
  • Data wrangling: normalizing and cleaning
  • Literate coding: combining prose and code to render analytical reports
  • Version control (git & GitHub): self-document the story of your code-based project and collaborations
  • Computational reproducibility: exemplary tools (e.g. OpenRefine, R, Python)
Tips for Effective Data Visualization

In this session, the Duke Center for Data and Visualization Sciences introduced tips for communicating using data visualizations, including:

  • Why we visualize
  • Principles of effective data visualization
  • Pitfalls to avoid
  • Critique and rework of a published visualization
Tips for Effective Academic Posters

In this session, the Duke Center for Data and Visualization Sciences introduced tips for creating a great research poster, including:

  • Characteristics of a good poster
  • How to get started with your layout and storytelling
  • Basic graphic design principles
  • Pitfalls to avoid
  • Critique and revision of a real poster draft

Additional Resources

Recordings of past research modules (accessible to all Duke users)

Campus Institutional Review Board

Duke Center for Data and Visualization Sciences Workshops

Duke DS+ (Data Science+) Trainings

Duke Libraries Research Support

Mod•U (online modules from the Duke Social Science Research Institute) (see index of all modules)

Project Management Modules from Duke Libraries & Bass Connections

Duke users also have access to a variety of resources via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning (see our cultivated list of topics likely to be relevant to Bass Connections teams)