Carlos Gómez González, Department of Business Administration UZH

In research-based learning, students independently experience all research cycle steps (at least partly) to acquire and consolidate research skills and gain new insights into a topic. In this seminar, 15 master’s students with some research competence from the business administration program develop their own projects. The overarching context of all research projects is „sports as a lab“, meaning the use of sports data to test economic and management theories. In small groups, the students complete selected tasks distributed in synchronous and asynchronous sessions, strategically scheduled over the spring semester. The sessions cover much ground related to defining the topic, formulating a research question, developing hypotheses, creating and analyzing sports datasets, communicating results, providing peers with feedback, and reflecting on specific research tasks. The students‘ profiles and previous experience in research activities determine the structure and design of the seminar, which define the level of independence in each step of the research cycle, practice time, and available support points. The assessment relies on three cornerstones: (1) Oral presentation, showing the methodological approach and preliminary results; (2) Written paper, describing the whole research project and final results; (3) Reflection and feedback activities to consolidate knowledge and improve other colleagues‘ work. The
synchronous tasks in the seminar mirror regular research activities and define key aspects to shape and improve the final projects. These tasks include presenting early ideas, planning a methodological approach, and communicating preliminary results, which put students in the shoes of researchers and have implications for developing skills and specialist knowledge in the field.