777250

Assistant Professor Merrill Jones Barradale, Copenhagen Business School and
Dr. Karin Bammann, Senior Researcher, University of Bremen

Participants must be enrolled as PhD. students in an institution of tertiary education. Students must attend the entire course in order to receive the course diploma. In place of required readings, students are asked to submit a brief description of their research plans (as currently conceived). This 3-5 page paper should introduce the research topic/question, briefly mention which philosophical approach(es) might be applicable, and discuss how survey or other data collection methods might be integrated into the research plan. This paper should be submitted 2 weeks prior to the start of the course and will be used to assess student needs and provide part of the basis for the course.

Whether your research incorporates interviews, participant observation, case study or survey methods, learning how to ask good questions is essential. Whether you are collecting your own data or analyzing someone else’s, thinking critically about data quality is invaluable. This course will help you do both. In teaching the principles and practices of good survey design, this course provides participants with skills that are broadly applicable to data collection in the social sciences.

Through analysis of sample questions, participants will learn the value of respondent satisfaction, clarity, and other fundamentals of question design. The course will emphasize the importance of testing questionnaires and will explore the synergies between interviews and surveys, including the use of interviews to generate relevant topics and interpret survey results.

We will cover important features of online survey research, as well as other types of surveys. The course will also cover aspects of post-collection data handling, including data cleansing and coding, missing data, and basic principles of categorical data analysis, as these elements can influence decisions about survey design.

•    Interviews and surveys in the broader context of social science research
•    Types of data: qualitative and quantitative
•    Populations, sampling, and methods of quantitative data collection
•    Features of online and other types of standardized surveys
•    Constructs and measurement (survey purpose, question relevance, validity, reliability)
•    Question design (for analyzability and respondent satisfaction)
•    Anonymity, confidentiality, and ethics
•    Pre-testing and pilot testing
•    Data cleansing and coding
•    Basic principles of categorical data analysis
 

This course emphasizes a learning-by-doing approach. Lectures and discussions will be interspersed with group tasks and individual exercises. Participants will analyze sample survey questions, develop and test their own questions, and contribute their findings to course discussions. Students will use a PC or laptop.

•    Understand how surveys relate to other types of social science research methods
•    Know what types of research questions surveys can and cannot answer
•    Appreciate the critical importance of testing questionnaires
•    Learn how to write good questions
•    Internalize the principles and practices of good survey design
•    Understand the principles and methods of sampling and data collection
•    Understand the advantages and disadvantages of online survey research
•    Understand how anonymity vs. confidentiality relate to ethics and data quality
•    Know the types of data surveys can generate and the different ways this data can be used and

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Katja Høeg-Tingleff
Email: kht.research@cbs.dk 
Tel: +45 3815 2839