Data+Analysis+&+Interpretive+Frameworks

An Online and Social Media-Oriented Experience
Successful data analysis depends on a researcher’s philosophy, the purposes of the research, how best to build congruence and plain old common sense. This online seminar provides graduate students with knowledge of data analysis techniques for the purpose of making critical dissertation choices.

Researchers commonly place a lot of emphasis on data collection without much regard for selection of data analysis techniques. The result can be incomplete research, or worse, research that makes no sense.

In this seminar students will use their own data, and will build social network experiences, to make hard choices regarding which data analysis approaches serve their purposes best.
 * How does one’s philosophy enter into the decision regarding what data analysis approach to employ?
 * How should the selection of data analysis techniques be linked to data collection techniques?
 * What kinds of results are to be expected from various data analysis techniques?
 * To what extent does it matter who the audiences will be when deciding on how to analyze data?
 * How and when should a researcher decide on the “products,” or the shape of the conclusions, e.g., a theoretical model, thick description, meta-policy presentation?

Choices abound. For some reason dissertation research in Finland most commonly results in ideas for program improvement.