This one-day course is aimed at those who need to collect data in a planned manner, either through surveys/questionnaires or through conducting experiments, as primary data. For the former it will look at good practice in survey and questionnaire design, examine aspects of surveys such as how to design questionnaires so as to make them attractive to their target respondents, how to ask specific "awkward" questions in a way that will encourage responses and how to structure questions to produce meaningful and analysable results. For the latter it will introduce the key concepts and principles of experimental design, including orthogonality, bias, confounding, aliasing, blocking, randomisation, and replication. A range of design types will be discussed, including the key considerations and constraints applicable to different areas of research. Methods for sample selection and experimental design will be discussed alongside sample size issues.

If you are interested in this course you may also be interested in our follow-on Data to Decisions: Statistical Analysis in Practice course and/or our From Data to Decisions: Working with Secondary Data course.

See our full range of courses (and options for bespoke courses) at https://go.herts.ac.uk/sscu or contact the course organiser, Professor Neil Spencer, at statistics@herts.ac.uk.