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The Howard W. Odum Institute for Research in Social Science Manning Hall, CB #3355 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC 27599 919-962-3061 Contact Webmaster

Course Schedule

Academic Holiday
Grants
Qualitative Analysis
Quantitative Analysis
Spatial Analysis
Survey Research
Statistical Computing
Other

Academic Holiday

Spring Break

March 08, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
March 09, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
March 10, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
March 11, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
March 12, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Grants

Proposal Development: From Great Idea to Funded Proposal

Peter Leousis
Writing a proposal shouldn't be a chore. If you approach it with the right attitude and if you know what you want to do, it can actually be fun. This workshop will help you get started by giving you an introduction to fundamentals of developing an idea, creating a plan, and putting the plan to paper. There are two keys to successful proposal writing: Know thyself (and what you want to do) and Know thy funder (and what they want you to do before they'll give you money). Please come prepared with an idea you would like to develop.

14 Manning Hall
April 14, 2010 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM

Qualitative Analysis

Atlas.ti 6.0 Hands-on Workshop

Paul Mihas
This hands-on short course will illustrate the capabilities of ATLAS.ti 6.0, a software program for coding and interpreting qualitative text. It provides a network editor that allows you to graphically display and examine the hierarchical and relational connections among your codes. ATLAS.ti provides numerous options for attaching memos and comments to text segments, documents, and codes.

Registration is not required.

Click here for a course handout. For further information, please contact Paul Mihas

01 Manning Hall
January 22, 2010 2:30 PM - 5:00 PM
February 15, 2010 2:30 PM - 5:00 PM

MAXQDA Hands-on Workshop

Paul Mihas
This course will cover the capabilities of MAXQDA 2007, a software program that supports qualitative data analysis and helps users systematically code, evaluate, and interpret texts. It is also a powerful tool for developing theories as well as testing theoretical hunches. Its features include coding, memo writing, matrix building, and map building. No official registration is required. For more information, please contact Paul Mihas.

01 Manning Hall
February 09, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Atlas.ti 6.0 Advanced Seminar

Paul Mihas
This course will cover merging projects, importing demographic data, co-occurrence tools, intercoder reliability issues, and advanced searches in the query tool. Registration is not required. Please contact Paul Mihas if you have questions about the class.
01 Manning Hall
March 23, 2010 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Analyzing Multi-media Data in Atlas.ti

Paul Mihas
This course will cover pdf, audio, video, graphical, Web, and Google Earth data in Atlas.ti. No registration is required. If you have questions, please contact Paul_Mihas@unc.edu.
01 Manning Hall
April 06, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Building a Codebook and Writing Memos

Paul Mihas
This course focuses on coding and memoing qualitative data within both the psychometric and heuristic traditions. Coding and memoing are presented as complementary tasks that occur while engaging textual data and identifying meaning units. The course will cover how memo writing can lead to efficient coding and will look at the nature of codebook evolution and the differences between deductive, inductive, and thematic codes. Students new to qualitative research are welcome to attend. Registration will open on February 22. For further information, please contact Paul Mihas
14 Manning Hall
April 22, 2010 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Quantitative Analysis

Doing and Thinking Bayesian Statistics: An Introduction for Social Scientists (Feb. 9, 10 & 16)

Michael Foster
Rooms 14, 01:
February 9, 10, & 12. Registration is required. Please go here to register.

February 9, 3:00-5 p.m. in Manning Hall Room 14 This session will involve a review of how Bayesian statisticians think about data, hypothesis testing and empirical problems. We will discuss Bayesian methods as an alternative model for science. We will review key issues, such as the posterior and prior distributions and how Bayesian methods differ from traditional, frequentist methods.

February 10 3:30-5 p.m. in Manning Hall Room 01 This session will discuss the practical issues involved in conducting Bayesian methods, such as the use of conjugate priors and the selection of priors more generally. We also will consider key Bayesian practices that should be beneficial to all analysts, such as careful checking of model specification. We also will discuss the benefits of Bayesian computational methods for Bayesians and non-Bayesians alike.

February 16, 3:30-5 p.m. in Manning Hall Room 01 We will learn the basics of markov chain monte carlo methods and how to employ those methods using the WinBugs program.
14 Manning Hall
February 09, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Logistic Regression

This short course provides an introduction to logistic regression. Model specification, identification, estimation, hypothesis-testing, and interpretation of results are covered. We meet in 14 Manning Hall. Software to estimate these models is discussed, but not demonstrated. This is not a course on software, but rather a course on the concepts and uses of logistic regression.

Handouts: Handout

14 Manning Hall
February 10, 2010 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Structural Equation Modeling (2 Days)

Cathy Zimmer
Structural equation models allow for the estimation of complex systems of equations and confirmatory factor analysis models. These models may include unobserved variables, which may involve conditions that violate the assumptions of ordinary regression, including imperfect measurement, correlated error amongst indicator variables and between equations, and reciprocal causation. This course will present a series of applied examples using EQS syntax under CALIS, which allows a complex structural equation system to be represented by a series of straightforward, regression-like equations. For more information, contact Cathy Zimmer, 962-0516.

Handouts: Handout Session 1; Handout Session 2

14 Manning Hall
March 18, 2010 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
March 19, 2010 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Latent Trajectory/Growth Curve Analysis: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

A powerful method for analyzing longitudinal data is Latent Trajectory Analysis (LTA). LTA allows each case in a sample to have individual trajectories ("latent curves" or "growth curves") representing change over time. In addition to mapping these trajectories, LTA allows researchers to examine the determinants of these trajectories or to relate the trajectories of one variable with those of another. The approach to LTA in this course draws on the strengths of structural equation modeling (SEM), and the primary goal is to introduce participants to the theory and application of LTA. The course begins with a conceptual introduction to LTA, a description of research questions that are well-suited for the technique, and a review of SEMs. The remainder of the course will cover the following topics: LTA models for a single variable with and without predictors of differences in trajectories; modeling nonlinear trajectories; the LTA model for multiple variables; the relation between the parameters governing the trajectories in two or more variables; incorporating predictors of multiple trajectories; and extensions to the LTA model. Participants should have prior training and experience with structural equation modeling and related software.
Instructor: Kenneth Bollen. Click here for more information. Click here to register. Fee: $1,500.
Check in is at 8:30 on June 21. Class is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Rooms 01 & 14
June 21, 2010 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
June 22, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
June 23, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
June 24, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
June 25, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Spatial Analysis

Odum/ICPSR Spatial Regression Analysis (June 7-11: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.)

Paul Voss and Katherine Curtis
The goal of this five-day course is to provide an overview of applied spatial regression analysis (spatial econometrics) that will enable participants to effectively incorporate these tools into their own empirical research. This course will introduce the broader field of spatial data analysis and the range of issues that generally must be dealt with when analyzing georeferenced data. Census-type data are among the most commonly encountered data that conform to this description, although the course acknowledges the wider range appropriate for spatial regression analysis. The role of spatial autocorrelation in spatial data sets is a central focus. This course will address the following questions: how does spatial autocorrelation arise; how is it measured and understood; how does it relate to issues of spatial heterogeneity and spatial dependence; and how should it inform the specification and estimation of regression models. The course is structured around a combined lecture format (mornings) and computing lab exercises (afternoons). Although we will use mapping software, the focus of the course is on spatial analysis, not Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Software emphasis will be given to ArcGIS 9 and GeoDa for exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and modeling. Some acquaintance with this software is helpful but is not a prerequisite. Prerequisites for maximizing learning in this course are a solid grounding in standard multivariate regression techniques and a minimal level of comfort with matrix notation and algebra.
Pre-registration required. Click here for more information or contact David Merchant at (734) 615-7859. Click here to register. Fee: $1,500.
Manning 01 and 14.
01 & 14 Manning Hall
June 07, 2010 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
June 08, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
June 09, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
June 10, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
June 11, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

ODUM/ICPSR Social Network Analysis (July 12-16: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.)

Katherine Faust
Network analysis focuses on relationships between or among social entities. It is used widely in the social and behavioral sciences, as well as in political science, economics, organizational studies, behavioral biology, and industrial engineering. The social network perspective, which will be taught in this workshop, has been developed over the last sixty years by researchers in psychology, sociology, and anthropology. The social network paradigm is gaining recognition in the social and behavioral sciences as the theoretical basis for examining social structures. This basis has been clearly defined and the paradigm convincingly applied to important substantive problems. However, the paradigm requires concepts and analytic tools beyond those provided by standard quantitative (particularly, statistical) methods. This five day workshop covers those concepts and tools. The course will present an introduction to concepts, methods, and applications of social network analysis drawn from the social and behavioral sciences. The primary focus of these methods is the analysis of relational data measured on groups of social actors. Topics include an introduction to graph theory and the use of directed graphs to study actor interrelations; structural and locational properties of actors, such as centrality, prestige, and prominence; subgroups and cliques; equivalence of actors, including structural equivalence, blockmodels, and an introduction to relational algebras; an introduction to local analyses, including dyadic and triadic analyses; and an introduction to statistical analyses, using models such as p1 and exponential random graph models. The workshop will use several common software packages for network analysis: UCINET, Pajek, NetDraw, and STOCNET.
Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. on Monday. The course runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday with a break for lunch.
Click here for more information. Click here to register. Fee: $1,500. Check in is at 8:30 a.m. on July 12. Class runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
14 Manning Hall
July 12, 2010 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM
July 13, 2010 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
July 14, 2010 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
July 15, 2010 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
July 16, 2010 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Survey Research

Cognitive Interviewing: A Hands-On Approach

Gordon Willis
National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
Joint Program for Survey Methodology, University of Maryland

REGISTRATION CLOSED

COURSE OBJECTIVES
Cognitive interviewing has become a very popular method for pretesting and evaluating survey questionnaires. The current approach favored by Federal laboratories and private research institutions mainly emphasizes the use of intensive verbal probes that are administered by specially trained interviewers to volunteer respondents, often in a laboratory environment, to delve into the cognitive and socio-cultural processes associated with answering survey questions. Based on this information, the evaluator makes judgments about where questions may produce difficulties in a number of subtle ways, due to cognitive demands they impose, cultural mismatches, or other shortcomings. The short-course will focus on the specifics of how to conduct verbal probing, and how to process and communicate the results obtained. Although an introduction to theory and background perspective is included, the course will focus on the application and practice of cognitive interviewing techniques, as these are targeted toward both interviewer-administered (face-to-face or telephone) and self-administered (paper and computer) surveys. Participants will practice the conduct of cognitive interviews across modes, and will evaluate their results by judging where questions have failed, and what one might do to revise them. The course aims to provide a working familiarity with cognitive techniques, so that students will be able to begin conducting cognitive interviews on their own.

THE INSTRUCTOR
Gordon Willis has practiced and conducted research in a wide range of cognitive interviewing techniques for twenty years, at Northwestern University, The National Center for Health Statistics, Research Triangle Institute, and currently at the National Cancer Institute, NIH. He has written "Cognitive Interviewing, A Tool for Improving Questionnaire Design." He has also taught short courses on cognitive and other questionnaire evaluation techniques for the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland/Michigan, and at conferences of the American Association for Public Opinion Research and the American Statistical Association. He has co-taught a course in questionnaire design at the University of Maryland/University of North Carolina, and has been adjunct faculty member at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. His research interests focus on the evaluation of pretesting techniques, and on their extension to cross-lingual, cross-cultural, and multi-national domains.

This course is a two-day event held at the William and Ida Friday Center. Breakfast, lunch and afternoon refreshments will be provided.

CPSM students: $36
UNC Chapel Hill students: $90
Other (faculty, staff, postdocs, etc.): $120

This course will count as 14.0 CPSM short course credit hours.

If you have any questions, please e-mail Michelle Temple: cpsm@unc.edu

William & Ida Friday Center
February 11, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
February 12, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Introduction To Qualtrics

Michelle Temple

This course requires pre-registration. To register, please click here.

This is an introductory course in using the Qualtrics web-based survey system to develop and conduct an online survey. Topics will include basic survey creation, customization and distribution. We will demonstrate how to create a mailing list for inviting respondents to the survey, and how to avoid the most common pitfalls that new users make. We will demonstrate how to download collected data into an Excel spreadsheet or SPSS dataset. The course will not cover use of the online analysis tools within Qualtrics. Participants are encouraged to read the Tips and Tricks sheet on the Odum website in preparation for the course.

This course has a small fee to cover the cost of course materials and refreshments:
CPSM students: $0
UNC Chapel Hill students: $15
Other (faculty, staff, postdocs, etc.): $25

This course will not count toward CPSM short course credit hours.

If you have any questions, please e-mail Michelle Temple: cpsm@unc.edu

01 Manning Hall
February 18, 2010 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Designing Web Surveys

Mick Couper

This course requires pre-registration. To register, please click here.

This course will illustrate the appropriate use of web tools (such as radio buttons, check boxes, slider bars), and the use of images, screen layout and other aspects of the user interface which affect accuracy of survey results. The course will not address web survey software or programming; the principles to be discussed are independent of any single software package.

The Instructor: Dr. Mick Couper, from the University of Michigan and the Joint Program in Survey Methodology, is the leading authority on web survey design in the U.S. He maintains an active knowledge of methodological principles and experimental research addressing measurement error in web surveys.

This event is two half days held at the Odum Institute. Breakfast and morning refreshments will be provided.

CPSM students: $0
UNC Chapel Hill students: $30
Other (faculty, staff, postdocs, etc.): $45

This course will count as 7.0 CPSM short course credit hours.

If you have any questions, please e-mail Michelle Temple: cpsm@unc.edu

14 Manning Hall
February 25, 2010 8:30 AM - 12:30 PM
February 26, 2010 8:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Introduction to Survey Quality

Paul Biemer

This course requires pre-registration. To register, please click here.

The course spans a range of topics dealing with the quality of data collected through the survey process. The course begins with a discussion of total survey error and its relationship to survey costs and provides a number of measures of quality that will be used throughout the course. Then the major sources of survey error are discussed in some detail. In particular, we examine a) the origins of each error source (i.e., its root causes), b) the most successful methods that have been proposed for reducing the error emanating from these error sources, and c) methods that are most often used in practice for evaluating the effects of the source on total survey error. The course is not designed to provide an in-depth study of any topic but rather as an introduction to the field of survey data quality. The purposes of the course are to provide an overview of the basic principles and concepts of survey quality with particular emphasis on the components of sampling and nonsampling error, to develop the background for the continued study of survey measurement quality through readings in the literature on survey methodology and to identify issues related to the improvement of the survey quality that are encountered in survey work and provide a basic foundation for resolving them.

Instructor: Dr. Paul Biemer

This course has a small fee to cover the cost of course materials and refreshments:
CPSM students: $0
UNC Chapel Hill students: $30
Other (faculty, staff, postdocs, etc.): $45

This course will count as 7.0 CPSM short course credit hours.

If you have any questions, please e-mail Michelle Temple: cpsm@unc.edu

14 Manning Hall
March 02, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Experimental Design For Surveys

Roger Tourangeau

This course requires pre-registration. To register, please click here.

A key tool of methodological research is the split-ballot experiment, in which randomly selected subgroups of a sample receive different questions, different response formats, or different modes of data collection. In theory, such experiments can combine the clarity of experimental designs with the inferential power of representative samples. All too often, though, such experiments use flawed designs that leave serious doubts about the meaning or generalizability of the findings. The purpose of this course is to consider the issues involved in the design and analysis of data from experiments embedded in surveys. It covers the purposes of experiments in surveys, examines several classic survey experiments in detail, and takes a close look at some of the pitfalls and issues in the design of such studies. These pitfalls include problems (such as the confounding of the experimental variables) that jeopardize the comparability of the experimental groups, problems (such as nonresponse) that cast doubts on the generality of the results, and problems in determining the reliability of the results. The course will also consider some of the design decisions that almost always arise in planning experiments ? issues such as identifying the appropriate error term for significance tests and including necessary comparison groups.

Instructor: Dr. Roger Tourangeau

This course has a small fee to cover the cost of course materials and refreshments:
CPSM students: $18
UNC Chapel Hill students: $45
Other (faculty, staff, postdocs, etc.): $60

This course will count as 7.0 CPSM short course credit hours.

If you have any questions, please e-mail Michelle Temple: cpsm@unc.edu

William & Ida Friday Center
March 18, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Introduction to Focus Groups

Michael Schwerin

This course requires pre-registration. To register, please click here.

Focus group interviews are commonly used for survey development, stakeholder empowerment, and qualitative data collection to capture rich information about attitudes and beliefs that affect behavior. An overview of the basics of focus group interviews supplemented with case study examples will highlight the most appropriate uses of focus groups, the qualities needed for a focus group facilitator, developing interview questions, and data capture, analysis, and reporting.

The instructor. Dr. Michael Schwerin (RTI International) has over 15 years of project management experience and has led or supported nearly a dozen focus group studies.

This course has a small fee to cover the cost of course materials and refreshments:
CPSM students: $0
UNC Chapel Hill students: $15
Other (faculty, staff, postdocs, etc.): $25

This course will count as 4.0 CPSM short course credit hours.

If you have any questions, please e-mail Michelle Temple: cpsm@unc.edu

14 Manning Hall
April 08, 2010 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Statistical Computing

SAS

Chris Wiesen
This is a four-day course that does NOT require registration. SAS part 1 of 4 will give an introduction to the SAS system and SAS windows. Topics to be covered include: creating and saving SAS programs; reading in data from simple and complex text data sets; typing variables; obtaining frequencies, contents, and univariate statistics. SAS part 2 of 4 will discuss formatting variable values; creating SAS libraries for storing and retrieving SAS data sets and format files; reading raw data from external files; creating new SAS data sets from existing SAS data sets, subsetting by observation and by variable. SAS part 3 of 4 will explain how to create new SAS data sets combining information from multiple existing SAS datasets; how to sort, concatenate, interleave, and merge data sets; how to perform the t-test, and test for no association in a contingency table. For SAS part 4 of 4, attendants will be allowed to suggest topics. Past topics include variable retyping, creating SAS datasets from SAS output; creating html and Microsoft Word tables, ANOVA, importing and exporting Excel files. This course is offered twice a semester. Registration is NOT required.

01 Manning Hall
February 01, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
February 02, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
February 03, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
February 04, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
March 15, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
March 16, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
March 17, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
March 18, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Mplus

Cathy Zimmer
Mplus is a modeling program that integrates random effect, factor, SEM and latent class analysis in both cross-sectional and longitudinal settings and for both single-level and multi-level data. As such, this short course will only scratch the surface of Mplus' capabilities. The basic structure of the program and how it can be modified will be taught in a hands-on way in the Odum Institute Computer Lab.
01 Manning Hall
February 17, 2010 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

SPSS

Cathy Zimmer
Part 1 of the course will offer an introduction to SPSS and teach how to work with data saved in SPSS format. Part 2 will demonstrate how to work with SPSS syntax, how to create your own SPSS data files, and how to convert data in other formats to SPSS. Part 3 will teach how to append and merge SPSS files, demonstrate basic analytical procedures, and show how to work with SPSS graphics.

Handouts: Handout 1; Handout 2; Handout 3
Registration is not required.
01 Manning Hall
February 22, 2010 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
February 23, 2010 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
February 24, 2010 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
March 24, 2010 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
March 25, 2010 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
March 26, 2010 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Stata

Cathy Zimmer
Stata part 1 will offer an introduction to Stata for Windows. Part 2 will teach entering data in Stata, working with Stata do files, and show how to append, sort, and merge data sets in Stata. Part 3 teaches how to perform basic statistical procedures and how to draw sub samples from large datasets. Registration is not required for this course. Handouts will be distributed and are available via the Odum Institute Web page.

Handouts: Handout 1 of 3 ; Handout 2 of 3; Handout 3 of 3
Registration is not required.
01 Manning Hall
March 01, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
March 02, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
March 03, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
April 07, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
April 08, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
April 09, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Basic Introduction to R (Two-day Course)

Jeff Harden
This is a two-day course on R, an open-source programming language for statistical analysis and graphics. It provides the analyst with a wide variety of tools commonly used in statistical modeling with more flexible, objected-oriented facilities than other programs like Stata or SAS. This course is designed for those with little or no R experience. It will cover basic syntax and data loading, model estimation, loading and using written packages (including a sampling of popular packages), graphical presentation of model results, and Monte Carlo simulation. After completing the course you will know enough to be able to (1) conduct a typical statistical analysis for your own research and (2) search for the things you don't know in an efficient manner. No registration is required.
01 Manning Hall
April 15, 2010 2:30 PM - 5:00 PM
April 16, 2010 2:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Other

Harvesting Internet Data with Stata

Neal Caren
01 Manning Hall
March 22, 2010 2:30 PM - 5:00 PM