07/29/2021
By Shanna Thompson

The Center for Program Evaluation will be offering Summer Interdisciplinary Evaluation & Data Analyses Workshops Aug. 23 to.25

How to Register

All participants interested in registering, should email us at cpe@uml.edu. Our workshops are open to both people affiliated and not affiliated with UMass Lowell. You can register for as many of the workshops as you like. If you have any questions about the Summer Workshops, feel contact us either by phone 978-934-4641 or email us at cpe@uml.edu.

ALL REGISTRATION FEES ARE NON-REFUNDABLE.

UMass Lowell Faculty/Staff/Students
Registration fee: $10/workshop.
Register for all 6 workshops, and receive a discounted rate of $50 total.

Non-Profit Community Organization Employees
Registration fee: $35/workshop.
Register for all 6 workshops, and receive a discounted rate of $175 total.

For-Profit Business Organizations Employees
Registration fee: $100/workshop.
Register for all 6 workshops, and receive a discounted rate of $500 total.

MONDAY, AUGUST 23, 2021

Basic Survey Construction
9:00 a.m. – 11:30a.m.
Jill Hendrickson Lohmeier, Associate Professor

Survey instruments are a basic research tool used at some point by most social scientists and by others to gain relatively quick information from a large number of people. This workshop will cover the basic dos and don’ts of survey construction including how to begin the survey and how to construct and order items. While focused primarily towards beginners, all levels are welcome.
Level: Beginner

Exploratory Factor Analysis in SPSS
12:30 p.m.– 3:00 p.m.
HsienYuan Hsu, Assistant Professor

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) has been widely used in social science research to investigate the factors underlying the responses to a set of items. In this workshop, the fundamental knowledge of EFA will be introduced. In addition, through an example, participants will learn the steps of conducting an EFA in SPSS and the interpretation of EFA. Lastly, the Stata syntax and outputs of EFA will be provided for Stata users.
Level: Intermediate

TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2021

A Gentle Introduction to Bayesian Inference for Applied Data Analysis
9:00 a.m. – 11:30a.m.
Jason Rydberg, Associate Professor

Bayesian inference is an approach to statistics which allows researchers to represent statistical uncertainty as the plausibility of different parameter values, based on a compromise between the data at hand and prior knowledge. Relative to frequentist null hypothesis significance testing, Bayesian inference has been growing in popularity within the social sciences as software makes it more and more accessible. This workshop will offer a gentle introduction to Bayesian inference, designed to provide applied data analysts with a basic understanding of the structure and goals of Bayesian analysis, estimation using examples in R, and presenting results to readers. Attendees will be provided with R script files to replicate all workshop materials.
Level: Intermediate (some familiarity with linear modeling and R would help).

Understanding & Handling Missing Data with Examples using R
12:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Jason Rydberg, Associate Professor

Missing data is a common element of applied social science research. However, how researchers “handle” missing data varies considerably within and between fields of study. Inadequate methods for handling missing data can lead to biased statistical analyses, such as in regression. This workshop will cover some concepts regarding missing data mechanisms and will sensitize participants to some modern solutions to handling missing data, such as multiple imputation. Software examples will be based in R. The workshop will conclude with practical advice for placating peer reviewer concerns.
Level: Intermediate

Introduction to Using Qualtrics for Online Surveys
9:00 a.m. – 11:00a.m.
Shanna Rose Thompson, CPE Mgr & Adjunct Prof

Qualtrics is a web-based survey tool that is available to UMass Lowell students, staff, & faculty. This beginning workshop will walk participants through how to create an online survey using this software.
Level: Beginner

Introduction to 7th Ed. APA Formatting
Noon – 2:00 p.m.
Shanna Rose Thompson, CPE Mgr & Adjunct Prof

APA style is a set of guidelines used in a variety of academic fields for scholar communications (e.g., course papers, dissertations, theses, and manuscripts). This beginning workshop will walk participants through aspects of this style that are most commonly used in academic papers and scholarly manuscripts. Changes that have occurred from the 6th to 7th ed. will also be discussed.
Level: Beginner