Part II of my Coursera course Social Science Approaches to the Study of Chinese Society will launch June 26:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/social-science-research-chinese-society
The emphasis is on providing a basic understanding of key elements in the process of designing and conducting a social science research study, with an emphasis on examples related to China. It is not China-specific, and should be accessible to anyone with a general interest in acquiring some understanding of how research is conducted. The intended audience is laypersons who have not previously had a systematic introduction to social science research methods, but would like one in order to better understand research results reported elsewhere, or because they are contemplating a transition into doing social science research.
The course complements topical courses offered by HKUST which focus on China, which emphasize the presentation of important results relevant to specific subjects. Examples include courses on Chinese politics by David Zweig, Chinese history, population, and society by James Lee, and Chinese economic development by Albert Park. This course would provide insight into how the results presented in these other courses were derived.
Part I is available here:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/social-science-study-chinese-society