Many first-year doctoral researchers find the prospect of completing a dissertation daunting. This paper describes the design and delivery of a core qualitative research methods course that takes a scaffolded, competency -based approach to teaching introductory qualitative research. Two questions frame the inquiry. 1) How should a competency-based introductory doctoral qualitative course be implemented? 2) What do the student outcomes data say? While many reports describe issues and challenges related to teaching qualitative research, few if any, detail an approach that scaffolds students through the design and implementation of an entire real-world research project, from Introduction to Conclusion.
