Description

The aim of the course is to familiarize students with research approaches, methods and techniques that apply to research and decision making in field of coastal and marine management. During the first part of the course students will get an overview of the most common statistical methods in environmental sciences. Logical components of research projects (observations, models, hypotheses, experiments) will be introduced and the assumptions (independence of data, homogeneity of variances and normality of data) of formal statistical testing explained. Students will be trained in applying common statistical methods by using statistical packages, as well as how to read and interpret statistical results in technical texts.

During the second part students will have an opportunity to practice writing technical reports and in presenting statistical results in a concise and clear manner. Proposal, thesis and paper writing and formatting will be introduced to students as well as other practical matters that apply to scientific and managerial work that students will face in the future.

The third and last part of the course will emphasize on qualitative research methods and their relevance for policy making and social work in coastal and marine management. Various techniques in qualitative research as well as data collection, processing and interpretation will be introduced and explained.

Learning outcomes

• Students will acquire a good understanding of various research methods and the importance of research planning
• Students will be able to assess logical components of research methods for a case study/research project
• Students will be able to design their own sampling strategy, organize their data and use statistical packages to carry out common statistical tests
• Students will be able to run ordination programs to understand and discern patterns in large data sets
• Students will be able to interpret statistical results in technical texts
• Students will be able to write technical texts for their own projects (thesis, proposals, manuscripts etc.)
• Students will gain a good basic understanding of qualitative research methods and their procedures, particularly in regards to their advantages and limitations
  

Assessment

Students´ final grade will be based on four projects and assignments. Two (45% and 20%) are individual projects and the other two are group assignments (15% and 20%)

Instructor

Dr. Emil Ólafsson (emilolafsson@menntun.org) graduated with a BSc degree in Biology from the University of Iceland in 1983 followed by a postgraduate research project and courses in Marine Biology. He did his PhD in Marine Ecology in Edinburgh, Scotland, followed by postdoctoral studies in Stockholm, Sweden, where he became Associate Professor at the Department of Zoology. He has lectured on various subjects and supervised 8 PhD and 15 MSc students. He has also organized and/or been an invited lecturer at a number of national and international post-graduate courses in several countries. He has been an evaluator for numerous PhD theses and research proposals for various universities and funding agencies. Dr. Ólafsson sits on the editorial committees of several international journals including Marine Ecology Progress Series. He is the founder and Scientific Director of Menntun (www.menntun.org), a consultancy company specializing in environmental research and education.

Sigríður Ólafsdóttir is the Program Director of the master's program in Coastal and Marine Management at the University Centre of the Westfjords. Currently she is also involved in official committee work and research projects. These projects include assessing the management framework for sand and gravel mining from the ocean floor and assessing the social impacts of coastal fisheries on small fishing communities; a newly implemented temporal fisheries management scheme in Iceland. She holds a master's degree in environmental science from the University of Iceland and a bachelor's degree in geography and geology.

Guest lecturer

Further reading