NRC to Present at the American Evaluation Association Conference in Denver

We are excited to be presenting and participating in special sessions at the 2014 American Evaluation Association Conference in Denver from October 15-18.
Join NRC vice president Michelle Kobayashi, director of research strategies Sonya Wytinck and senior research associate Lee Tyson for their session “Are Opt-In Web Surveys Ready for Prime Time?” Michelle will also be leading a professional development workshop on how to use surveys effectively for program evaluation and needs assessments.

Session details are as follows:

Professional Development Workshop - Presenter: Michelle Kobayashi
Time: Oct 14, 2014 (09:00 AM - 04:00 PM)
Room: Centennial E

Surveys can provide excellent information for evaluators. However, developing effective surveys requires an eye for unbiased question design as well as the ability to identify how the results of the survey will be used. This workshop will take participants through the major steps in survey development, administration and reporting. Topics covered include survey mode selection, sampling, instrument creation, data analysis, and reporting. Specific emphasis will be given to issues of emerging technology— its usefulness and limitations. Many real world strategies will be provided to assist evaluators in study design, instrument creation and analysis/reporting techniques to help promote data accuracy and usefulness.

Special Session
Are Opt-In Web Surveys Ready for Prime Time?
Time: Thu, Oct 16, 2014 (02:00 PM - 02:45 PM)
Room: 711

The prevalence of web-based surveys has increased dramatically in the past decade and will continue its rise as web-based survey companies proliferate. At the same time, response rates for traditional survey modes are on the decline -- making the use of web surveys more appealing. However, web surveys are often based on non-probability or “opt in” samples of respondents challenging evaluators to make sense of the accuracy and reliability of the data collected.

In this Roundtable, we will present the results of a large study we conducted comparing the results of mailed and web survey results for 40 communities across America. We also will present our experience weighting the survey data using various weighting variables (both demographic and webographic) as well as weighting procedures – post-stratification and propensity score adjustment.

See the full conference schedule here.

We hope to see you there!