Abstract:

In Indonesia, undergraduate students, including those belonging to bachelor's degrees and diplomas programs that might last three or four years, have to take a course on research methodology. Despite their lack of interest in becoming researchers, they must complete a final project that requires research skills. Taking the Course in one semester, students learn how to write a proposal, collect data, analyze data, and perform other tasks that a professional researcher typically performs. To improve and investigate the effectiveness of the Course, we conduct a study on all aspects related to the methodology courses. The objective of the research is to find out to what extent the students understand the course materials and how the Course can be improved. The survey is used as the main research method with questions consisting of both open and closed questions. The questionnaires were given twice. The first at the beginning is given to the students who have just begun to take the Course and the students who have finished taking the Course, and the second questionnaire was given only to the students who have completed the Course. With a return rate of over 90 %, the present study has informed us about the teaching methodology course in undergraduate classes. The research suggests that the methodology course appears to be beneficial for completing their final assignments and for their future lives. They admit that they have learned soft critical skills such as critical thinking and the scientific method. Those who have completed the Course acknowledge that the course materials have equipped them with the knowledge and skills necessary to develop a research proposal, collect data, analyze data, and perform other research-related tasks. As this type of research topic is underexplored, this undoubtedly contributed to knowledge about the methodology course.

Keywords:

Research methodology, undergraduate class, scientific method.