Research Practicum

The aim of the course is to provide students with practical experience of participating in a research group and its ongoing research activities. The course introduces students to how collaborative research groups function in practice through supervised participation in an existing research environment.

The course is organised around students’ active participation in an existing research project hosted by a research group. Each participating research group proposes suitable student roles, assigns a supervisor, and follows the student through planned check-ins during the semester.

Students are embedded in the research group to observe, participate in, and support selected parts of the research work. The purpose is to learn how research groups organise and conduct research in practice, similar to fieldwork for researchers. Learning research practice through participation is the primary goal of the course.

Students work as research assistants within the research group and contribute to specific and limited tasks appropriate to the project and the student role. Typical tasks may include:

• assisting in user studies or workshops
• testing prototypes or systems
• collecting, organising, or documenting empirical material
• supporting experiments or pilot studies
• designing or developing experimental prototypes
• preprocessing, analysing or annotating scientific data
• preparing posters, demonstrations, or dissemination material

Students are not responsible for the research group’s core project outcomes, deliverables, or deadlines. The focus is on understanding how research groups work, how projects develop, and how research practice is organised.

At the beginning of the semester, the student, research group supervisor, and course responsible jointly develop a small learning plan describing the student’s role in the research group, the project context, tasks, supervision structure, and intended learning outcomes.

The host research group participates in the final evaluation together with the course responsible.

After completing the course, the student will have achieved the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge

The student:

• understands how collaborative research projects are organised and conducted in practice
• understands how user studies, prototyping, experimentation, and documentation activities are integrated into research projects
• understands ethical and practical considerations related to participation in research activities
• understands the roles and responsibilities within collaborative research environments

Skills

The student:

• can contribute to supervised research tasks within an ongoing research project
• can assist in user studies, prototype testing, documentation, or dissemination activities related to research practice
• can collaborate with researchers and other project participants in a professional setting
• can document and reflect on experiences from participation in research practice

General Competence

The student:

• can reflect critically on research practice and collaborative project work
• can participate responsibly in research activities involving users, technologies, and empirical material
• can communicate experiences and insights from participation in a research project
• can relate theoretical and methodological knowledge to practical research activities