My Dream Curriculum in Research Methods
Every year I offer my top picks for summer intensive training courses on research methods, and usually I point to several universities for the sake of options and a full range of methods. Well, this year I am pointing to just one. I looked at the course listings at the University of Michigan’s Survey Research Center and, oh my gosh, look at this outstanding inventory of course options! Looking at this list I still get that rush of undergraduate excitement and the feeling that I want to sign up for them all.
I am also struck by this list because it so perfectly aligns with the work that we do and what our clients need from research. With one exception (the course on biomarker data collection) this is the kind of research work that we’re doing every day:
- Analysis Methods for Complex Sample Survey Data
- Biomarker Data Collection in the Social Sciences
- Building and Testing Structural Equation Models
- Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Introduction and Overview
- Data Collection Methods
- Examining the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) Workshop-2014
- How to Design and Draw Inferences from Non-Experimental Studies
- Introduction to Applied Questionnaire Design
- Introduction to Focus Groups as Qualitative Research
- Introduction to Survey Methods and their Application in International Settings
- Introduction to Survey Sampling
- Introduction to Survey Research Techniques
- Methods of Survey Sampling
- Multi-Item Scale Development and Testing
- Multi-Level Analysis of Survey Data
- Qualitative Methods: Overview and Semi-Structured Interviewing
- Question Testing Methods
- Questionnaire Design
- Survey Data Analysis 1: Introduction to Statistical Principles and Data Analysis
- Survey Data Analysis 2: Linear and Logistic Regression
- Survey Data Analysis 3: Multivariate Analysis
- Surveying Rare Populations
- Web Survey Design
- Workshop in Survey Sampling Techniques
The University of Michigan is a top university that has an outstanding group of social science departments with faculty specializing in scientific methods of survey research. They’re not business people, but rather the folks who build the tools and develop the scientific protocols that we need. If you have the luxury of immersing yourself for a few days or weeks in super rigorous academic training, these are the courses for you.
