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ON-03: Survey Research Methods

Overview

This course provides a sound introduction to survey design, following in-depth guidance provided by the Total Survey Error (TSE) framework. Above all, it is an opportunity to work on your own survey design.

Applications are closed

About the Course

The course will use a variety of online learning tools including pre-prepared resources that can be accessed at any time including short lectures, glossaries, self-checked exercises etc. but also a variety of interactive sessions. We will dedicate these sessions to everyone’s designs and some potential solutions for advance activities. As such, the group and instruction will provide food for thought for improvement of individual designs. Participants will most benefit if they are in the process of designing a survey project, as they will benefit from the comments, feedback, and questions by participants and instructor. The course will help them to shape their survey projects.

This course provides a sound introduction to survey design, following in-depth guidance provided by the Total Survey Error (TSE) framework. Above all, it is an opportunity to work on your own survey design. 

Day 1

An introduction to the idea of Total Survey Error and how it may affect survey estimates. The practical session gives all participants the opportunity to introduce their survey projects.

Day 2

Focuses on survey sampling, sampling error, and mitigating strategies. The practical session allows all participants to discuss the design of the sampling strategies for their projects.

Day 3 and 4

Are dedicated to questionnaire design, potential errors and how to avoid them. The practical sessions focus on the participants’ questionnaires, or core questions, and aims to provide feedback to improve respondent experience.

Day 4 looks at the modes of data collection, their trade-offs regarding representation and measurement error, and how to make informed decisions which mode is most appropriate for each project. The practical session considers participants’ survey projects and aims to provide feedback and incentives to improve the user experience for mode choice appropriate for each project.

Day 5

On our final day, we consider issue fieldwork implementation, including pretesting and cognitive interviewing to improve data quality, and to detect potential error sources. The practical session is dedicated to considerations on how to best implement each project, identify potential obstacles, and draft mitigating strategies to improve response rates. The workshop closes with a discussion about the future of survey data collections in the digital age. The content of this the workshop is transferable to surveys of individuals, households, and organisations.

This description is subject to change at the discretion of the Instructor

2 Credits

For completion of all work before and during the course, as outlined by the Instructor, and 90% participation and attendance of the course.

Instructor

Kathrin Thomas

kathrin.thomas@abdn.ac.uk

Kathrin is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Aberdeen. She has extensive expertise in survey methodology from design to analysis. Previously, she worked as Senior Research Specialist on the Arab Barometer in the Department of Politics at Princeton University, where she managed the survey data collection for Round 5 of the barometer. Kathrin also worked as Research Associate in Survey Methodology in the Department of Sociology at City, University of London, with the European Social Survey and remain a supporter and good friend of the project. Kathrin worked as Research Associate on the Austrian National Election Study hosted by the Department of Methods in the Social Sciences at the University of Vienna. She obtained my PhD in Politics from the University of Exeter within the Marie Curie ITN on Electoral Democracy (ELECDEM) in 2013. As Early Stage Marie Curie Researcher, she was able to spend time as Visiting Scholar in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan working on the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and in the Politics Department at the European University Institute. Substantively, her research focuses on (comparative) public opinion, electoral politics, participation, and social and political psychology.

Kathrin Thomas

Pricing

15% off During Early Bird!

  • Student Member

    €524.30

  • Student Non-Member

    €749.00

  • Other Member

    €636.65

  • Other Non-Member

    €749.00

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