Trinity Days Workshops - Register Now!

I will be hosting three workshops over Trinity Days:

• Workshop#1: Excel (Monday, October 12, 10 - 12)
• Workshop#2: SPSS (Monday, October 12, 2 - 4)
• Workshop#3: Atlas.ti (Tuesday, October 13, 10 - 12)

We’ll be working in the best computer lab on campus (Seabury 205), eating some food, and working through some “real world” situations that require technical, software skills. There is no better time to start picking up these skills than while you are in college, where you can do this for free in a low-stress environment!

These workshops are for students from all skill levels (from those who would rather avoid learning new software to those who know a lot about the software at hand but want to learn how to apply software skills to real, problem-solving activities).

Please visit the SSC events page to read the flier and register!

Teaching about operationalization with dataset archives

I've noticed that students have a really hard time moving from the idea they might have for a project to identifying a dataset that they can actually use. On Wednesday I'm going to experiment with how best to guide students through this transition from idea to empirical data that actually exists.

One point I would like to make with the students is that they should be browsing datasets while they refine research question. This means they have to begin looking at codebooks early on. The easier it is for students to gain access to codebooks, the better, so I would recommend the following data archives: CPANDA and ARDA.

The picture to the right gives you a sense of what you can see if you use CPANDA's "browse study questions" option. The fact that the students can immediately access the questions, without having to register and download a pdf or Word document is a huge plus!