New survey clinic fills university need<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n![\"Survey](\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3221\/2016\/08\/IMG_5578-396x283.jpg\")
<\/a>Survey design clinic members (back row) Dr. Don Dillman and James McCall and (front row) Lindsey Beltz, Sarah Morton, Mandy Clayson, and Yikang Bai.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe Social and Economic Sciences Research Center (SESRC) has conducted surveys for University sponsors, state agencies, and organizations throughout the United States for more than 40 years. During this time thousands of surveys have been implemented by telephone, mail, and the Internet. Sociology graduate students benefited from the SESRC by gaining survey design skills from formal classroom instruction and applying those skills in the SESRC\u2019s data collection laboratories.<\/p>\n
The creation of a new Survey Design Clinic at the SESRC takes this long history of collaboration a step further. Lena Le, SESRC Director, and Lisa McIntyre, chair of the sociology department, created the clinic to provide no-cost assistance to students, faculty, and staff who were undertaking survey research.<\/p>\n
In addition to university service, the other goal of the clinic was to provide advanced survey design learning experiences for graduate students.<\/p>\n
In many respects the clinic experience is like a medical student internship, where students try to understand patient needs and translate textbook learning into ways of diagnosing and solving problems,\u201d said Don Dillman, who co-led the effort to implement the clinic with Le.<\/p>\n![\"SESRC](\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3221\/2016\/08\/IMG_5550-396x283.jpg\")
<\/a>SESRC Director Lena Le (left) chats with survey clinic consultants Sarah Morton and James McCall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe survey design clinic opened its doors in the Spring 2016 semester\u2014and included five graduate students: Lindsey Betz, Mandy Clayson, Sarah Morton, Yikang Bi, and James McCall. Each student held office hours twice a week\u2014and invited anyone from the university community to drop-in with questions related to survey methods.<\/p>\n
Dr. Dillman\u2019s recent book \u201cInternet, Phone, Web, and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method, 4th<\/sup> edition\u201d provided guidance for solving a host of survey design problems\u2014from sampling and writing questions to getting high response rates. WSU Sociology and SESRC alums Jolene Smyth (associate professor of Sociology at the University of Nebraska) and Leah Melani Christian (Research Director at Nielsen) co-authored the book.<\/p>\n\u201cOne of the results of combining classroom and clinic instruction is that our graduates will be better equipped to provide practical help to students and colleagues in the future,\u201d Dillman said.<\/p>\n
Overall, each student logged more than 70 hours of consulting during the semester. The clinic worked on 16 different full-scale surveys, ranging from faculty research to undergraduate class projects.<\/p>\n
The most common questions posed by clients focused on how to construct questionnaires.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing the most people struggled with were questions like: \u2018Are the questions clear? How is the structure of my survey? Does it make sense?\u2019\u201d said McCall.<\/p>\n
The survey clients included students and faculty from a wide array of departments, including the College of Arts and Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Neuroscience, and Veterinary Medicine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people that came in were from diverse areas\u2026so it took me doing some homework to then get to a place to give them advice,\u201d said Clayson.<\/p>\n
In addition to providing a service for the WSU community, the student consultants also came away with valuable hands-on experience.<\/p>\n![\"Graduate](\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3221\/2016\/08\/IMG_5552-396x283.jpg\")
<\/a>Graduate students Lindsey Beltz and Yikang Bai, survey design clinic consultants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cI whole-heartedly believe that learning something is one thing, but putting into practice is a whole other beast. You learn a lot more that way,\u201d McCall said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was able to move my knowledge from a book, that I could pull off a shelf as a resource, to actually in my head. I could pull from my own brain really quickly, instead of just having to reference a book. It became a working knowledge,\u201d Clayson said. \u201cThat\u2019s really valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Survey](\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3221\/2016\/08\/IMG_5578.jpg\")
<\/a>The Social and Economic Sciences Research Center (SESRC) has conducted surveys for University sponsors, state agencies, and organizations throughout the United States for more than 40 years. During this time thousands of surveys have been implemented by telephone, mail, and the Internet. Sociology graduate students benefited from the SESRC by gaining survey design skills from formal classroom instruction and applying those skills in the SESRC\u2019s data collection laboratories.<\/p>\n
The creation of a new Survey Design Clinic at the SESRC takes this long history of collaboration a step further. Lena Le, SESRC Director, and Lisa McIntyre, chair of the sociology department, created the clinic to provide no-cost assistance to students, faculty, and staff who were undertaking survey research.<\/p>\n
In addition to university service, the other goal of the clinic was to provide advanced survey design learning experiences for graduate students.<\/p>\n
In many respects the clinic experience is like a medical student internship, where students try to understand patient needs and translate textbook learning into ways of diagnosing and solving problems,\u201d said Don Dillman, who co-led the effort to implement the clinic with Le.<\/p>\n The survey design clinic opened its doors in the Spring 2016 semester\u2014and included five graduate students: Lindsey Betz, Mandy Clayson, Sarah Morton, Yikang Bi, and James McCall. Each student held office hours twice a week\u2014and invited anyone from the university community to drop-in with questions related to survey methods.<\/p>\n Dr. Dillman\u2019s recent book \u201cInternet, Phone, Web, and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method, 4th<\/sup> edition\u201d provided guidance for solving a host of survey design problems\u2014from sampling and writing questions to getting high response rates. WSU Sociology and SESRC alums Jolene Smyth (associate professor of Sociology at the University of Nebraska) and Leah Melani Christian (Research Director at Nielsen) co-authored the book.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the results of combining classroom and clinic instruction is that our graduates will be better equipped to provide practical help to students and colleagues in the future,\u201d Dillman said.<\/p>\n Overall, each student logged more than 70 hours of consulting during the semester. The clinic worked on 16 different full-scale surveys, ranging from faculty research to undergraduate class projects.<\/p>\n The most common questions posed by clients focused on how to construct questionnaires.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing the most people struggled with were questions like: \u2018Are the questions clear? How is the structure of my survey? Does it make sense?\u2019\u201d said McCall.<\/p>\n The survey clients included students and faculty from a wide array of departments, including the College of Arts and Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Neuroscience, and Veterinary Medicine.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people that came in were from diverse areas\u2026so it took me doing some homework to then get to a place to give them advice,\u201d said Clayson.<\/p>\n In addition to providing a service for the WSU community, the student consultants also came away with valuable hands-on experience.<\/p>\n \u201cI whole-heartedly believe that learning something is one thing, but putting into practice is a whole other beast. You learn a lot more that way,\u201d McCall said.<\/p>\n \u201cI was able to move my knowledge from a book, that I could pull off a shelf as a resource, to actually in my head. I could pull from my own brain really quickly, instead of just having to reference a book. It became a working knowledge,\u201d Clayson said. \u201cThat\u2019s really valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>