Survey Research: Design, Implementation and Data Processing

About

Changes in technology and society strongly influence modern survey research. This course covers the essentials of modern survey methodology and analysis. Topics include state of the art survey design, questionnaire construction and testing, modes of and devices for data collection, data processing and survey analysis techniques, such as nonresponse analysis and scale and index construction and the design of multi-source statistics. Best practice guidelines for phases of the survey from design to implementation, analysis and reporting will be discussed. International comparative and longitudinal surveys are included. Best practice guidelines for surveys from design to implementation, analysis and reporting will be discussed.

Graduate students, academic researchers, researchers in the public and private sector, heads of departments, managers, and commissioners of research are increasingly dealing with surveys. This course is intended as an introduction at master/graduate level for those who are new to modern survey methodology and as a refresher course for those with some experience in survey methodology. Current developments will be reviewed and research literature will be discussed.

The course includes consultation sessions on Friday afternoon.

During this course, participants have the valuable opportunity to tap into on-location expertise. Our instructors are seasoned survey methodologist with extensive experience in pretesting, questionnaire design, measurement quality assessment, and proficiency in conducting web surveys and mixed-device surveys.

Prerequisites:
A basic knowledge of methods and statistics (e.g. introductory statistics) is required. In the course SPSS and R will be used, but specific knowledge of SPSS or R is not required.

Participants are requested to bring their own laptop. Software will be available online.

Course leader

Dr. Katharina Meitinger

Target group

Whether you are working with survey data, intend to commission a survey, or carry out a survey yourself, if you want to know more about designing modern surveys this course is for you. This course assumes minimally bachelor level knowledge of methods and statistics. In the course SPSS will be used, but specific knowledge of SPSS is not required. In addition, exercises will be available in R. The course is intended for students, professionals, and managers from a variety of fields, such as social and behavioral research, marketing, business, health sciences, and official statistics, who would like to learn more about the survey process in the 21st century.

For an overview of all our summer school courses offered by the Department of Methodology and Statistics please click here.

We also offer tailor-made M&S courses and in-house M&S training. If you want to look at the possibilities, please contact Dr. Laurence Frank at pe.dsai@uu.nl.

Course aim

The aim of this course is to provide an overview of theory and practice of modern survey design. This course is useful for both novices in survey methodology and for more experienced students, who want to refresh their knowledge. After the course, participants are ready to apply the learned towards their own surveys, are able to critically assess existing surveys and survey documentation, and are able to take advanced training in survey methodology and analysis.

Fee info