MPPAL Students,
We are considering deviating from the usual cohort format with regard to enrollment in the Research Methods and Information Systems course to be offered in May and June, 2008. Specifically, we are wondering whether it might be desirable to structure the two sections with slightly different course content, given that there are significant differences in the kind of previous work you and your classmates have done in this area. No decision has been made in that regard; we are interested in getting some feedback from you concerning alternatives before making a decision. To that end, please complete the following survey.
Thanks a lot for your help.
1. * Which cohort are you in currently?
2. All other things being equal, where would you prefer to attend classes for this course on Tuesday and Thursday evenings in May and part of June? Select the number that best represents your preference on the scale from 1 to 7.
For each of the following topics, indicate whether you have had an academic course that addressed them in the past three years, and/or practical experience in the area in the past three years, as well as how confident you are of your knowledge in the area:
3. Descriptive statistics
4. Inferential statistics
5. Computer statistics packages
6. Spreadsheet (such as Excel)
7. Research design
8. Sampling methods
9. Survey research
10. Graphic techniques
11. Please select one or more statistical software packages you have used before:
12. If you have used other statistical software packages that are not listed above, please list them:
13. Please list specialized research topics in which you have training or experience.
14. Please identify any topics, either those listed above or others, that you are especially interested in learning about.
15. Do you know what a Z-score is?
16. Do you know what the term “interval data” refers to?
17. Do you know which statistic you would use to describe the strength of relationship between per/capita income and per capita crime rate in various Canadian cities.
Please share with us some of your expectations on what you want to learn in this course:
18. Information literacy - to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information, with extensive use of online databases
19. Statistical literacy - to read and interpret data and to use statistics as evidence in arguments
20. Applied data analysis - to conduct statistical analysis, often with a statistical software package, to analyze quantitative data
Please share with us some of your preferences on how to learn:
21. I prefer to attend
(a) lectures where I can sit and listen
(b) seminars where I can participate and speak up
22. In solving an assignment problem in my coursework, I prefer to
(a) do as much preparation and research as I can before I make my first attempt to solve it
(b) try out different approaches and ideas to see what works from the start
23. I prefer to work
(a) alone on assignments
(b) with my colleagues on group projects