ISR Spring Seminar Courses
This
course will assist individuals in the public and private sectors with
no prior experience in using the services of research consultants to
purchase research services. Topics include when to hire a research
consultant; the utility and limitations of focus group analyses and in-
depth interviews; when to use surveys; and co-operative relationships
between your organization and research consultants.
Takes place on
Monday, May 5 from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Room 1154 Vari Hall.
Instructor: Prof. J. Paul Grayson.
The morning
session will deal with the basic features of focus group planning and
implementation. The afternoon session will consider practical
aspects of conducting focus groups, with a special emphasis on
moderator techniques. Participants are invited to raise concrete
problems for discussion relating to focus group design, identification
and selection of participants, and data collection.
Takes place on
Tuesday, May 6 from 9:30 a.m.-12:00 noon and 1:00-3:30 p.m. in
Room 1154 Vari Hall. Instructor: Darla Rhyne.
This
course provides a broad review of the research on questionnaire
design, setting out design guidelines but also showing how good
survey design involves researchers carefully defining their own goals.
The review will be set in the context of three generations of research
on question design, ending with a detailed discussion of the last
decade's cognitive approaches. There will be a discussion of the
questionnaire as a whole and of 'context' effects deriving from the
sequence of questions.
Takes place on Wednesday, May 7 from 9:30
a.m.-12:00 noon and 1:00-3:30 p.m. in Room B01 Schulich School of
Business. Instructor: Professor Michael Ornstein.
The seminar begins with a discussion of the relative merits of mail
and telephone surveys in terms of questionnaire content, sampling
issues, and costs. For telephone surveys the focus is on sample
design, the hiring and training interviewers, and strategies for
encouraging respondents to participate in the research. The length
and layout of mail surveys and the number and timing of mailouts is
discussed.
Takes place on Friday, May 9 from 9:30 a.m.-12:00 noon
and 1:00-3:30 p.m. in Room 1154 Vari Hall. Instructor: John
Pollard.
This
course provides an overview of survey data analysis, emphasizing the
process of understanding quantitative data. Discussion of statistical
techniques for examining distributions and contingency tables and
for linear models is combined with an examination of the important
aspects of survey data, including measurement error, missing data,
and the need to work with large numbers of variables. The effective
presentation of findings in the form of text, tables and charts is also
discussed. Some previous background in social statistics and surveys
would be helpful but is not required.
Takes place on Monday, May
12 from 9:30 a.m.-12:00 noon and 1:00-3:30 p.m. in Room B01
Schulich School of Business. Instructor: Professor Michael Ornstein.
The
focus of this workshop will be on strategies for analyzing qualitative
social science research materials, such as field notes and transcripts
of in-depth interviews and focus groups. Organized around the major
themes of keeping track of what you are doing, what you are finding
and how you are feeling about it, the session will pay particular
attention to coding and indexing as integral components of the
analytic process.
Takes place on Wednesday, May 14 from 9:30
a.m.-12:00 noon and 1:00-3:30 p.m. in Room 1154 Vari Hall.
Instructor: Darla Rhyne.
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