Digital Research Tools

Here in the SCUP office we are constantly on the search for new tools to use to make our woork go better and faster. We are vigorous users of instant messaging, Google Documents, and we're seeing if Twitter or Yammer can make us more productive. Here's a new resource that lists a ton of digital research tools that might help you with your job and its dwindling budget:

As more and more scholars grow interested in the world of digital research, this tremendously useful wiki will be one that they will tell their colleagues about. Created by Lisa Spiro, the director of the Digital Media Center at Rice University, this collaborative wiki collects information about tools and resources that can help scholars conduct research more efficiently or creatively. Visitors can browse through topical headings that include "Authoring", "Blogging", and "Data Mining", among others. Within each heading, visitors can read short descriptions about each resource. Under the "Types of Tools" section visitors can search for specific tools that can help them collect data, edit images, make a dynamic map, and so on. Additionally, visitors can sign up to join the wiki here and also learn more about Spiro and her other projects. [KMG]

Copyright 2009 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu

Survey and Questionaire Tutorial

Yep, we know everyone thinks they know how to write a survey or a questionaire. It's like "marketing," which everyone also thinks they know how to do.

What are the important factors to consider when designing a survey? Would it be best conducted via telephone? Or would it be better to have a face-to-face meeting? These are but a few of the topics covered on this site created as a public service by the StatPac group. Visitors can elect to download the entire report on survey design here, or they can just click through the topics that interest them. Each topic includes a brief discussion of its relative importance, and the areas covered include questionnaire length, time considerations, question wording, and sampling methods. It's a thoughtful and helpful resource overall, and it's one that might be put to good use in an introductory statistics course in college. [KMG]

Copyright 2009 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu

Ask Good Questions by Starting with Key Decisions

The "blurb" on this article reads, "The most effective data-collection efforts build on a clear understanding of the decisions the data should inform." Sure. Deborah Keyek-Franssen and Charlotte Briggs write about this with regard to technology needs assessment, but their lessons learned are useful for all campus responsibilities:

Conducting a campus-wide needs assessment is a lot of work. Starting with clear goals and a good plan vastly increases the probability that the assessment will go smoothly and yield genuinely useful information. Although front-loading your team’s time and energy into the initial planning phase might feel overly bureaucratic or academic, it pays off later when you can return to your overarching decision question and tacit principles as touchstones in moments of disagreement or doubt. Every institution is different—there would be little impetus for needs assessments otherwise—so it’s important to align your plan with your institution’s mission and strategic plan. You also need to be realistic about how technology is viewed in relation to the institution’s identity and aspirations. Planning a needs assessment for an institution that can’t afford to innovate is very different from planning an assessment for an institution that showcases its technology as a prime indicator of its competitiveness.