Education - Short Courses
- Home
- About AAPOR
- Annual Conference
- 66th Annual Conference
- Education - Short Courses
2011 Short Courses
Six in-depth courses are offered to enhance your learning experience. These short courses are taught by well-known experts in the survey research field and cover topics that affect our ever-changing industry. Make the most of your time at the conference and plan to attend one or more short courses!
Download the Preliminary Program for complete details.
Course 1:
Title: Dealing with Missing Data
Date: Wednesday, May 11, 2:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Instructors:
Mansour Fahimi, Ph.D
Darryl Creel
Course Overview:
Invariably, missing data create analytical complexities and
inefficiencies in survey research. Records with missing data,
which can occur as a result of item nonresponse, inconsistent data, or
loss of data, cause problems in several respects. For tabulations,
missing data have to be reported as separate categories – a
compromise that both complicates the presentation and undermines the
survey credibility. For analysis, records with missing items are
commonly omitted – another compromise that reduces the reportable
database and can produce biased results. Also, demographic
variables used for weighting need to be complete but this expectation is
virtually never realized in practice.
Course 2:
Title: Designing Surveys for Mobile Devices:
Pocket-sized Surveys that Yield Powerful Results
Date: Wednesday, May 11, 2:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Instructors:
Mario Callegaro, Ph.D
Tim Macer
Course Overview:
This short course will familiarize the participants with the issues
of designing surveys that can be taken on mobile devices. We will
discuss topics such as questionnaire design, layout, navigation, use of
images and video, and email invitations.Data on mobile phone web
browsing and data on number of respondents accessing a survey via a
mobile device will be presented. We will review the scarce literature on
the topic together with original studies never presented
before.Practical advice on topics such as measuring which device has
been used to take the survey and the technical requirements needed to
conduct effective mobile research will be covered. A discussion on
different survey platforms that can handle mobile phone surveys will
conclude the course.
Course 3:
Title: Principles for Questionnaire Design
Date: Thursday, May 12, 8:00 a.m. – 11:30
a.m.
Instructor:
Roger Tourangeau, Ph.D
Course Overview:
This course will introduce the scientific literature on the design of
survey questionnaires. It will discuss various guidelines for
crafting survey questions and review some of the key findings that are
the basis for these guidelines. It will include some
in-class exercises to give the students practice in applying these
principles to specific survey items.
Course 4:
Title: The Benefits & Challenges
of Address-Based Sampling Designs
Date: Thursday, May 12, 8:00 a.m. – 11:30
a.m.
Instructors:
David Dutwin, Ph.D
Michael W. Link, Ph.D
Course Overview:
Address Based Sampling (ABS), whereby survey units are sampled from
a database of residential listings, has been the subject of intensive
research efforts in recent years. The promise of ABS is that it
provides high coverage of residential homes using a nearly complete
sampling frame based on the U.S. Postal Service Computerized Delivery
Sequence file. Because the frame is based on addresses and not
landline telephone numbers, cell phone only households are included in
the frame in proportion to their penetration within the sampled
geography. Additionally, telephone numbers and other sample frame
indicators – such as geocoded information from Census block groups
or commercial databases – can be appended to the frame, providing
more information for sample stratification and targeted sample
treatments. However, while ABS may solve the problem of cell
phone noncoverage, there are issues particular to ABS that researchers
must factor. Additionally, the use of ABS requires the researcher
to choose from a number of different methodological choices, and be
aware of very different operational considerations.
Course 5:
Title: Creating Effective Designs for Mixed-Mode
Surveys
Date: Thursday, May 12, 8:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Instructor:
Don A. Dillman, Ph.D
Course Overview:
Interest in using mixed-mode designs to improve survey quality
continues to grow, just as our knowledge of potential problems also
expands. This short course builds upon the 2009 book Internet,
Mail and Mixed-Mode Survey (Dillman, Smyth and Christian), and
emphasizes research conducted since its publication.
Course 6:
Title: The Use of Incentives in Survey Research
Date: Sunday, May 15, 8:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Instructor:
Paul J. Lavrakas, Ph.D
Course Overview:
This half-day AAPOR short course will focus on a framework that
survey researchers should use to determine how to choose, deploy, and
evaluate the incentives they will use in their surveys. This
framework covers (a) possible goals that incentives are meant to achieve
(e.g., improving response rates; improving data quality; reducing
nonresponse bias) and the theories that underlie possible achievement of
these goals, (b) which respondents will be chosen to receive incentives,
(c) the type of incentives that will be used (e.g., contingent and/or
noncontingent; cash and/or noncash; fixed and/or differential), (d)
ethical considerations in choosing the incentives that will be deployed,
(e) costs implications the chosen incentives will have, and (f) how to
evaluate the impact of the chosen incentives. Examples of incentives
used for various studies and purposes will be provided throughout the
course. Q&A will allow for targeted advice to be suggested about
incentives in specific projects the attendees may choose to ask
about.
Back to top