Summary of Course:
This course focuses on the design and implementation of quantitative social surveys (excluding the design of questionnaires which is covered in a separate course). Topics include project management, quality, ethical and reporting issues; guidelines for understanding interviewer vs. self-completion implementation concerns; ways to minimise nonresponse before it happens; various issues in survey sampling and an introduction to weighting; principles of data coding and processing, and an introduction to the Survey Question Bank.
Course Objectives:
Course Content:
The course will cover the quantitative survey process from initial design through data processing (excluding the design of questionnaires which is covered in a separate course). Topics covered include:
The course will have two strands. The first will consider the survey literature and the theoretical underpinnings of survey research. The second will examine survey research from a more informal and practical perspective. It will involve group discussions and tutored workshops and focus on those aspects of survey implementation that are often not taught in formal courses.
Target Audience:
The course is aimed at researchers, research managers and research students, including those who intend to design and execute quantitative surveys, those who specify and commission such surveys and those who analyse survey data and desire to understand the processes through which such data are generated, the errors to which they are prone and the meaning of survey "data quality".
Course Fee:
Thanks to continued ESRC funding we are able to offer this course at reduced rates as follows:
The course fee includes course materials, lunches and morning and afternoon refreshments. Travel and accommodation are to be arranged and paid for by the participant.
Course places are limited and early registration is strongly recommended.
Deadline and Refunds:
Course places are limited and early registration is strongly recommended. Please be aware that we will only hold a place without payment for a limited time.
Please refer to the terms and conditions of the University of Southampton online store when booking. An administration charge of £30 may apply for cancellations. No refunds can be provided for cancellations less than 28 days prior to the start of the course.
Location:
The course will be held at the Medical Research Council, 1 Kemble Street, London, WC2B 4AN. The course will be held in rooms 1 and 4 on 23rd, in rooms 2 and 5 on 24th and in rooms 1 and 4 on 25th April 2014.
A map and directions to the Medical Research Council can be found here.
Participants are left to make their own accommodation arrangements.
Duration:
This is a 3 day course. The course begins at 10.00am on the first day (with registration and coffee from 9.30am) and ends at 5.00pm. On the 2nd day it runs from 9.30am to 5.00pm and on the 3rd day it runs from 9.30am to 4.30pm
Course Materials:
Course participants will receive a hard copy of the course notes.
***Please bring a calculator with a square root function***
The Instructor:
Dr Pamela Campanelli is an independent Survey Methods Consultant, Chartered Statistician and Chartered Scientist with a background in psychology, survey methodology and statistics. Previously, she was a Research Director at the Survey Methods Centre of the National Centre for Social Research. Prior to joining the National Centre, she was involved with surveys and survey methods projects at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, the Center for Survey Methods Research at the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and at the University of Michigan. Her main interests and publications are in the study of survey error and data quality issues, with a special emphasis on questionnaire design, question testing strategies, interviewing techniques, sampling, mixed modes and survey nonresponse. In addition to her consultancy work, she regularly teaches short courses for a variety of UK organisations, universities, central government departments, and survey research companies as well as the Universities of Michigan, Hong Kong and Wollongong and the bureau of statistics in Switzerland, Ireland and South Africa. (see also http://www.thesurveycoach.com/).
There are no prerequisites for the course, but participants new to survey research will find the following useful to read.
What is a Survey? Pamphlet, Washington, DC: American Statistical Association. Available off the internet http://www.amstat.org/sections/srms/pamphlet.pdf
An extended reading list is included with the course material