DCR Students –
We are back to a traditional in-person lecture format this week, with Michael Kohn coming to talk about designing questionnaires, data collection forms and data management plans for clinical research studies. Many of you are taking Mike’s concurrent course on Data Management; he has designed this lecture to be complementary, though with perhaps a small amount of overlap.
Your assignment this week is to design a data collection form for your study. Obviously, this is most useful for people designing studies that include primary data collection. If your main study is a secondary data analysis, then hopefully your “alternate” study (see Assignment 4) is a primary data collection study – design a data collection form for that. Or for some new study you are thinking about. If all else fails, choose a measurement that was already made in your secondary data analysis project, and make up a data collection form for that. You’ll also design the data dictionary for that form, and a data management plan – see assignment instructions and example. You’ll find this exercise to be somewhat harder than you expect.
I won’t reiterate notes from last week about the Final Project, except for the general suggestion to keep building your draft and identifying what you need help with. Note that the assignment for the LAST week of class (not Week 6) will include assembling a full draft of your project and identifying an “unsettled issue” for discussion with your classmates. Of course, unsettled issues and miscellaneous questions about your project are welcome anytime – including next week!
Assignment 6 and Lecture 6 slides are now posted on the syllabus.
See you in class on Tuesday.