Quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques for health measurements

This 4-hour course will be offered via Zoom. Attendance is required as the course will not be recorded.

Course Summary:

Measuring someone’s health by means of questionnaires is a challenging task. The concept of health is very broad – it encompasses a person’s physical, social and mental state – which makes conceptualization difficult. In addition, there is a high risk of socially desirable answers, since people like to indicate that they are doing well. Finally, health research is often conducted among people who are not fit or the elderly for whom surveys are a cognitively demanding task.

This course will focus on both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques to measure health. First, participants will learn about collecting qualitative data on health through semi-structured interviews and researcher driven photo-elicitation interviews. Ensuring the scientific quality of these forms of data collection will be discussed on the basis of Guba and Lincoln’s trustworthiness criteria. Finally, we pay attention to analyzing qualitative data by means of a thematic analysis. Second, participants will learn more about implementation of surveys in hospital waiting rooms, taking the Total Survey Error Framework into account. Special attention will be paid to the design of attitude response scales.

Level: Beginner, some basic knowledge on survey research methodology is helpful

Instructors: Marieke Haan, PhD, and Yfke Ongena, PhD

Marieke Haan, PhD, is senior lecturer at the Sociology Department of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. She teaches courses on Methodology & Data Collection and Qualitative Research Methods. Her research interests include mixed-device surveys, health surveys, and qualitative research methods in diverse fields (e.g., sociology, psychology and medical sciences). Haan’s most recent published papers focused on positive health perceptions of older adults, hospital waiting room surveys, and mobile device use in surveys. 

Yfke Ongena, PhD, is senior lecturer Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Her research interests include interviewer and respondent interaction in survey interviews, data collection in health surveys and social desirability response bias.

Register

In this session, participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and seek feedback on their qualitative analysis from facilitators and other attendees. This session serves as a workshop in which participants get a chance to discuss and review qualitative analysis techniques while also learning from others.

To attend, participants must be working on a qualitative data analysis project and can seek feedback on any step in the process (e.g., coding, creating matrices/diagrams/other products, developing categories or themes, summarizing data). One does not need to have attended previous qualitative analysis training sessions administered by NC TraCS. However, participants should come with some knowledge of qualitative data analysis techniques.

Facilitators:
MaryBeth Grewe, MPH, Engagement and Qualitative Research Specialist
Simone Frank, MPH, Community Engagement and Outreach Specialist
Milenka Jean-Baptiste, MPH, Qualitative Research Specialist

Eligibility Screener

An introduction to daily life methods: daily diary and experience-sampling methods

This one-day course will be offered via Zoom. Attendance is required as the course will not be recorded.

Course Summary:

Daily life methods are a family of methods used to study what people do in their ordinary environments in their everyday lives through collecting data at least once a day for several days. Two common forms of daily life methods, daily diaries and experience sampling methods, will be emphasized in this course.

This course will be interactive and present opportunities for attendees to start thinking about how to apply daily life methods to their own programs of research.

Instructor: Katherine Cotter, PhD

Katherine Cotter, PhD, is a researcher with the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research has focused on people’s interactions with music and visual art, with an emphasis on assessing interactions in people’s typical, everyday environments. In her work, Cotter often uses daily life methods, which assess people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as they occur in their everyday environments.  

Register

The Proposal Development Unit in the Office of Research and Innovation at NC State University invites everyone in the NC State community and the broader NC TraCS Institute community to participate in the NIH @ NC State Fall Grantsmanship Series.

NIH provides information about funded awards on the report.nih.gov website. This session will walk through some common searches and highlight some tips for finding what you want. Demonstrated searches will include finding a program officer in your field, identifying similar grants at NC State, and viewing the success rate for a given Institute or Center.

Register

The Orientation for New Clinical Research Personnel is a two-part series held on November 8 & 10 from 1 - 3:30 p.m. both days. The curriculum is designed to be a true orientation for new research personnel (either new to UNC or new to research altogether), but anyone is welcome to attend. The orientation will be held in person in room 219 of the TraCS suite on the 2nd floor of the Brinkhous-Bullitt building.

Topics covered in the orientation will include:
- The research landscape at UNC-Chapel Hill
- The research study life cycle and different types of research studies
- Good Clinical Practice
- Overview of research regulations and research processes
- Overview of research roles and responsibilities
- Informed consent

Register

Please contact Catherine Barnes at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have questions regarding this training.