2006 Spring Seminar Series
on Social Research Methods


The Spring Seminar Series have concluded.

Courses will be offered again in Fall 2006.

Please check this website in September
for course information.



Courses

The Art and Science of Research Interviewing

Conducting Focus Groups for Social Research 

Interpreting Qualitative Data: An Overview

An NVivo Workshop

The Survey Research Process: an Overview

Survey Sampling in a Nutshell

Principles and Practices of Questionnaire Design

Survey Design Workshop

Collecting Data Using Mail Surveys

An Introduction to Survey Data Analysis

An Introduction to SPSS for Windows

An Introduction to SAS for Windows

 

Pre-registration and payment of fees is required for all Short Courses.

Please follow these links for details on:
REGISTRATION
Course Fees
Certificate of Completion

Introduction

For many years in the spring, the Institute has offered a series of courses on social science research methods, including both qualitative research approaches and quantitative survey research and data analysis methods. The 2006 spring courses are organized as one week of qualitative research topics, and a second week on the survey research process. We encourage you to enrol in the entire series, but understand that some people will want to attend only those sessions dealing with particular topics.

The qualitative research courses begin with two sessions on "data collection", using interviews and focus groups. The next day's seminar is on approaches to interpreting qualitative data, dealing with textual materials including in-depth interviews, focus group transcripts, and written texts. The series ends with a workshop on the computerized analysis of text using NVivo.

The sessions on survey research begin with an introduction to general principles, followed by a short, relatively non-technical, discussion on sampling. The next day deals with questionnaire design, followed by a half-day workshop designed to provide some hands-on practice in questionnaire design. That afternoon deals with the design and implementation of self-administered surveys, emphasizing mailed surveys. The last day provides an introduction to survey data analysis.

Alongside these two sessions, we will be teaching introductions to SPSS and SAS, the two most popular data analysis programs. Each course is designed to equip the beginning student to undertake basic statistical analysis of survey or other quantitative data. These courses are spread over four weeks, giving participants time to practise with their own data.

While not a substitute for regular university courses, our spring courses provide a hands-on approach designed to help researchers develop practical skills. They attract an interesting mixture of graduate students, researchers from government and NGOs, faculty members and university staff. Several courses assume some knowledge of basic statistics (see the course descriptions) but we strive to teach in a way that provides a successful introduction to each topic, while offering new insights to more experienced researchers.



Qualitative Research Methods (May 15-19, 2006)



The Art and Science of Research Interviewing

Instructor:
Raymond Garrison, MA
Date:
Monday, June 5, 2006 rescheduled
Times:
9:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon and 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Location:
Room 0010 new location
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building
Enrolment Limit:
40

This applied course on research interviewing will focus on two interrelated areas:

  • interview design issues, such as interview types, arranging interviews, pre-testing, informed consent and confidentiality, standardization and flexibility, using multiple interviewers, longitudinal studies, and recording interviews; and
  • in-field considerations and techniques, such as probing, maintaining flow, issues of control and adaptation, positionality, and taking field notes.

The relative merits and challenges of a variety of interview types will be considered, across a continuum from qualitative to quantitative approaches, including oral narratives, conversational, semi-structured and structured interviews. Practical examples will be provided. Class participants will also be encouraged to discuss their own research projects in the context of issues raised throughout the course. This cross-disciplinary introductory course will provide a comprehensive and detailed overview that is suitable for both academic and non-academic researchers.





Conducting Focus Groups for Social Research

Instructor:
John Pollard, MA
Date:
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Times:
9:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon and 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Location:
Room 1014
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building
Enrolment Limit:
25

This course presents an introduction to focus group research. The morning session will deal with the basic features of focus group planning and implementation, including how focus groups are currently being used, strengths and weaknesses of this research method, ethical issues to consider, and the various stages of focus group research. The afternoon session will consider practical aspects of conducting focus groups, including appropriate settings for focus groups, participant recruitment, developing the discussion outline, taping focus groups, and moderator techniques.

Participants are invited to raise concrete problems for discussion relating to focus group design, the identification and selection of participants, and data collection. This presentation is suitable for students, faculty, staff and other researchers who are considering focus group research for the first time and for those seeking to refresh their knowledge of this social research method.





Interpreting Qualitative Data: An Overview

Instructor:
Raymond Garrison, MA
Date:
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Times:
9:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon and 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Location:
Room 0005
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building
Enrolment Limit:
40

This course provides a conceptual overview, with hands-on examples, of strategies for analyzing qualitative social science research materials, such as field notes, transcripts of in-depth interviews and focus groups, and documentary and archival materials. Major topics include the process of qualitative analysis, organizing data, emergent concepts, and analytic memos. 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 the initial stages of analysis and to coding and indexing as integral components of the analytic process.

A discussion of the presentation of results from qualitative research will review various formats and approaches, the voice of the author and positionality, ethical and confidentiality issues, and the notions of 'qualitative rigour' and replication. The course will conclude with a brief overview of the advantages and limitations of qualitative data analysis software programs, including NVivo. Class participants will be encouraged to discuss their own research projects in the context of issues raised throughout the course. This course is well suited to researchers who are relatively new to qualitative analysis and those wishing to know more about interpretive analysis in general.





Using Computers in Qualitative Analysis:
An NVivo Workshop

Instructor:
Professor Judy Bates
Date:
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Times:
9:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon and 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Location:
Room 2114
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building
Enrolment Limit:
35

The focus of this workshop will be on using the software package NVivo to analyze qualitative data, such as transcripts of in-depth interviews, focus groups and field notes. The morning session will focus on when and why to use NVivo, how to import text, and how to code it. In the afternoon we will examine the tools for analyzing qualitative data in NVivo. This workshop will include a hands-on component. The workshop will benefit newcomers to NVivo, as well as people with some experience, who would like to expand their skills.



Survey Research Methods (May 23-26, 2006)



The Survey Research Process: An Overview

Instructor:
Professor Bryn Greer-Wootten
Date:
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Time:
9:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon (half-course)
Location:
Room 1014
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building
Enrolment Limit:
50

Survey research combines elements of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and this course offers a discussion of ontological, epistemological and methodological concerns (i.e., the philosophical framing of survey research as an inquiry paradigm) and explores the more practical issues of 'mixed methods' (i.e., of both quantitative and qualitative approaches) in research design. This seminar is designed as a discussion of these broader concerns, in order to contextualize the practical issues of survey research as a set of decision processes implicated in research design.





Survey Sampling in a Nutshell

Instructor:
Professor Michael Ornstein
Date:
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Time:
1:00 - 3:30 p.m. (half-course)
Location:
Room 0005
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building
Enrolment Limit:
50

The size and design of the sample often dominates the cost of a survey, as well setting important limits on the results. This session is designed to help the researcher make good decisions about sampling (but not how to design complex samples). Topics covered include: probability versus purposive samples; types of probability samples and their consequences for analysis; how big a sample is needed; and are clusters just a nuisance? The lecture is illustrated with examples of real sample designs.





Principles and Practice of Questionnaire Design

Instructor:
Professor Michael Ornstein
Date:
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Times:
9:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon and 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Location:
Room 0005
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building
Enrolment Limit:
50

This short course presents a complete overview and guide to designing survey questionnaires. Ideas about what respondents are doing when they complete a survey and what the survey researcher wants to achieve, provide the basis for a discussion of how to write individual questions and assemble them into a questionnaire. Specific topics covered include: differences among mailed, Web, CATI and face-to-face surveys, open and closed questions, what to make of "don't know" answers, how to ask "standard" demographic questions, and the effects of question order. Throughout, questionnaire design is understood as a research process rather than a discrete task.





Survey Design Workshop

Instructors:
Renée Elsbett-Koeppen, MSc
Liza Mercier, BSc
Professor Michael Ornstein
Date:
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Time:
9:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon (half-course)
Location:
Room 1014
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building
Enrolment Limit:
30

The purpose of this half-day workshop is to extend and deepen your understanding of questionnaire design with some practical experience. Participants from the previous day's session will be given an assignment at the end of that day, and will meet in small groups for the first hour today to develop draft questions. The rest of the session will be spent discussing the groups' questions.

Enrollment in this session is open only to persons who attend the previous session Principles and Practice of Questionnaire Design on Wednesday, May 24th.





Collecting Data Using Mail Surveys

Instructors:
Liza Mercier, BSc
Renée Elsbett-Koeppen, MSc
Date:
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Time:
1:00 - 3:30 p.m (half-course)
Location:
Room 1014
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building
Enrolment Limit:
30

The course begins with a discussion of the advantages and limitations of mail surveys in terms of questionnaire content, sampling issues and costs. This is followed by a detailed review of the implementation of this type of survey, emphasizing data quality and maximizing response rates through careful planning. The number and timing of mailouts, as well as the layout and length of mail surveys, are discussed. Participants will have the opportunity to review many samples of materials used in mail surveys at ISR.

Participants without a good working knowledge of questionnaire design and sampling are urged to register for the two courses on questionnaire design, Principles and Practice of Questionnaire Design (May 24th) and Survey Design Workshop(May 25th), as these topics will not be addressed in detail in this session.





An Introduction to Survey Data Analysis

Instructors:
Professor Bryn Greer-Wootten
Date:
Friday, May 26, 2006
Times:
9:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon and 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Location:
Room 2114
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building
Enrolment Limit:
20

The practicalities of analyzing survey research data are emphasized in this computer based short course. Initial exploratory analysis will deal with levels of measurement, distributional properties of variables, and simple descriptive statistics. The construction of scales (e.g., attitudes) is demonstrated and fundamentals of statistical inference and hypothesis testing are then discussed, followed by the implementation of an analytical design with basic statistical analyses: of association (contingency analysis); of group differences with respect to means and variances (analysis of variance); and of relationships between variables (correlation and regression).

Participants should have some prior background in basic statistics or the fundamentals of survey research. Prior knowledge of SPSS would be beneficial.



SCS Short Courses - SPSS and SAS



Introduction to SPSS for Windows

Instructor: 
Lisa Fiksenbaum, MA
Dates: 
Tuesday, April 4, 11, 18 and 25, 2006
Time: 
10:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Location: 
Room 021 (Steacie Instructional Lab)
Steacie Science Library
Enrolment Limit: 
35

This course presents the basics of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Session One will introduce the computing concepts of SPSS, the different facilities for reading data into an SPSS spreadsheet, and saving SPSS data files for future use. At the end of the first session, participants should be able to run simple programs, including some statistical procedures. Sessions Two and Three will cover basic data modifications, transformations and other functions, including the uses of SPSS system files. More statistical procedures will also be introduced, with an emphasis on the use of graphical methods for examining univariate and bivariate relationships. Session Four will cover Analysis of Variance and Least Squares Regression. As with previous sessions, graphical techniques will be demonstrated.

Participants will benefit if they have a basic level of statistical knowledge, but the course is designed as an introduction to data analysis using the SPSS program and not as a statistics course.





An Introduction to SAS for Windows

Instructor: 
Gigi Luk, MA
Dates: 
Wednesday, April 5, 12, 19 and 26, 2006
Time: 
9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Location: 
Room 021 (Steacie Instructional Lab)
Steacie Science Library
Enrolment Limit: 
35

This short course provides a basic introduction to the Statistical Analysis System (SAS). Sessions One and Two provide: an overview of SAS and its underlying logic; an explanation of the use of the Display Manager System to run a SAS job; an introduction to the SAS Data step for reading, importing, transforming and storing numeric and character data; and a demonstration of how output can be changed with different options. In addition, some basic procedures in SAS will be introduced. Sessions Three and Four will concentrate on SAS programming techniques to modify data, create charts and plots and transform temporary datasets to permanent datasets. A demonstration of how to use SAS/INSIGHT and SAS/ANALYST will be presented, as well as a basic description of the general linear model.

The course is designed for participants with some introductory level statistical knowledge, but no previous experience in using SAS.



Course Fees

  • For York students, staff and faculty, the fees are
    $40 per full-course and $20 per half-course.
  • Full-time students at other post-secondary institutions may register for a fee of
    $60 per full-course and $30 per half-course.
  • For external participants, the fees per course are:
The Art and Science of Research Interviewing.............
$100
Conducting Focus Groups for Social Research............
$100
Interpreting Qualitative Data: An Overview..................
$100
An NVivo Workshop.................................................
$100
The Survey Research Process: an Overview................
$50
Survey Sampling in a Nutshell......................................
$50
Principles and Practices of Questionnaire Design.........
$100
Survey Design Workshop...........................................
$50
Collecting Data Using Mail Surveys.............................
$50
An Introduction to Survey Data Analysis.....................
$100
An Introduction to SPSS for Windows........................
$240
An Introduction to SAS for Windows..........................
$240
All participants: Certificate of Completion..............
$5.00 each 

Course fees must be paid at the time of registration.
See the registration form for payment options.

Refunds are available upon three days' notice prior to the course start date
and are subject to an administrative fee.




Registration

  • To register in person (weekdays, from 9:00am to 12:00pm or
    2:00pm to 4:00pm), please see:

Anita Valencia
Room 5075
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building

Anita Valencia
Institute for Social Research
Room 5075
Technology Enhanced Learning Building
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON   M3J 1P3
Canada




Certificate of Completion

  • Available on request, full attendance is required.

  • A $5.00 administrative fee applies, for each certificate requested.




Additional Information

Additional information regarding registration: please telephone 416-736-5061, weekdays, from 9:00am to 12:00pm or 2:00pm to 4:00pm

Directions to York University (Keele Campus), information on parking and building locations click here.




Statistical Consulting Service (SCS)

The Institute for Social Research's Statistical Consulting Service provides consultation on a broad range of statistical problems and on the use of computers for statistical analysis. Its services extend beyond the social sciences to other disciplines that make use of statistics. Consultation is available to assist in research design, data collection, data analysis, statistical computing, and the presentation of statistical material.

Consultation is provided by a group of faculty drawn from York University's Departments of Sociology, Psychology, Geography, Environmental Studies, and Mathematics and Statistics, in conjunction with full-time professional staff at ISR. The faculty and staff have extensive experience with all forms of statistical analysis. Topics for which assistance is available include regression analysis, multivariate analysis, stochastic processes, probability theory, exploratory data analysis, scaling and cluster analysis, analysis of categorical data, structural equation modeling, survey data and longitudinal data, experimental design, survey sampling, and statistical computing.

Three times a year, the Statistical Consulting Service offers short courses on various aspects of statistics and statistical computing, including regular introductions to the SPSS and SAS statistical packages. Recent course offerings have included regression diagnostics, boot-strapping techniques, an introduction to the AMOS module in SPSS, graphical methods for categorical data, confirmatory factor analysis, model-based approaches to cluster analysis, an introduction to the R programming language, and visual methods for statistical data analysis. The Statistical Consulting Service staff also assist in teaching these topics by giving presentations in regular university classes.

The Statistical Consulting Service maintains a regular schedule of office hours during the academic year. The Service primarily serves the York University community; for others, consultation is available on a fee-for-service basis. Appointments can be made at http://www.isr.yorku.ca/scs with the on-line Appointment Scheduler.

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