DSS 306: Data collection, Analysis and Presentation

Fundamentally, this course will enable students to gain practical experience in the design of data collection instruments, data collection, analysis and report writing. Under the guidance of lecturers, who act as field supervisors, the students are grouped and taken to a community outside the University where they learn the basic skills of identifying enumeration areas using standard Enumeration Area maps, conducting house and household listing, scientific selection of households and respondents as well as acquisition of practical interview skills. The course outline is as follows: Methods of Data Collection: Quantitative and Qualitative: structured and unstructured questionnaire, Focus Group Discussions, In-depth Interviews, observation etc- advantages and shortcomings of each method of data collection. Questionnaire Design Content, wording, open and pre-coded questions; pre-testing and pilot surveys. Interviewing: The ethics of social enquiry: the interviewer and the respondents, the problem of rapport and non-response. The use of Projective techniques: Socio-metric techniques in the’ study of small groups, scaling methods; introduction to experimental design. Developing the Research Proposal. Data Processing: Data entry, Editing, coding and the problem of categorization, tabulation: manual and machine tabulation. Fieldwork for all students.