AQMeN - Applied Quantitative Methods Network

Course outline

Topics covered will include:  

• Survey Resources Network (SRN) - resources and activities available through the network.
   
• Survey Question Bank (SQB) - what is it, what does it offer, surveys in the SQB.
   
• Quality in survey research - what 'quality' is and how to ensure your survey is robust.
   
• Current Issues in social research.
   
• Surveys in focus - each workshop will include an afternoon session focusing on a specific issue, for example, attitudinal questions, comprising a discussion on the issue, then a practical example of a large national survey which faces that issue*.
   
• A discussion of the follow-up placements - up to 4 days are available to participants of each workshop, tailored to their individual learning needs.

Who is it aimed at?

 if you:  

• Are new to applied social research, or about to embark on your first survey and would like to gain an insight into, and increase your knowledge of, survey research methods, processes and quality issues.
   
• Are a PhD or postgraduate student who wants to better understand the survey process.
   
• Commission or manage survey research in: central or local government; health or other public sector bodies; or the third sector (including charities and voluntary organisations), and need to use survey data including making judgments about quality.
   
• Analyse survey datasets and wish to learn more about how survey data are collected and the strengths and limitations of such data.  

Learning outcomes

Through participation in Survey Skills workshops, delegates will: 

• Become capable of identifying and locating a variety of social surveys and understanding their content and population coverage.
   
• Increase their knowledge about the range of survey resources available across the internet and have gained hands-on experience of navigating and using the Survey Question Bank resource.
   
• Learn about the social survey lifecycle and be able to identify key stages in that process.
   
• Become familiar with the range of methods used for collecting survey data from primary sources and the role of the interveiwer.
   
• Understand the processes and challenges involved in getting a survey into the field.
   
• Become aware of the process involved in cleaning datasets and preparing them for archiving, and of the range of datasets available through the internet, especially the UK Data Archive.
   
• Become more confident in recognising the hallmarks of high quality in social survey research and understand how compromises in sampling, design or collection can impact upon the reliability and validity of findings.