========================================================================== Team member names: Brianna Agyemang bagyeman@andrew.cmu.edu Nia Austin nia@cmu.edu Kristine McPherson kmcphers@andrew.cmu.edu Jaimie Lee jaimiel@andrew.cmu.edu ========================================================================== For Team Assignment I.2, please * Turn in a complete, revised draft of your Team Assignment I.1, covering all the points [(a) through (e) for project 1, and (a) through (f) for project 2] below. Please label these points in your revised draft, so they are easy (for me!) to find and read. * The revised draft should include very carefully thought out information about Target Population (item b below), Sampling Frame (item c below) and Method of Data Collection (item d below). * Also make any additional revisions required or suggested in my comments below. Please revise ALL PARTS of the proposal for next Tuesday. Even if I have not commented much on one or more points, all aspects of the proposal can be improved. * Assignment I.2 will be graded using the same scheme below, but with higher standards throughout. ========================================================================== Project Proposal 1: Post-graduation Plans of Undergraduate Seniors OVERALL: * EVERYONE can do a better job of convincing me why each of their projects is interesting enough to actually bother to do. * Nice topic. Nice focus, and someone could actually do something about the results of your survey if they know about it. * Think carefully about target population, sampling frame, method of data collection, and what variables/questions it will be important to collect data on, for the revised proposal. (a) Interesting research question? Doable? Each team member provides one piece of previous research or results on this question? "We propose to analyze the plans of graduating seniors as well as the motives behind their decisions. The post-graduation plans of seniors are important to study, because we can reveal trends in which direction(s) students are heading immediately following graduation. Furthermore, by studying how seniors come to a conclusion about their plans, we can better understand who or what has the greatest influence on the decision making process. The Career Center is a likely client for this survey, since they can use the findings to better tailor their programming and advising techniques." * Great to have identified a client. If this is the project you do, you should let the career center know about it. They can help suggest questions and topics within this research question that they could possibly act on. * nice description of context for the study based on your research. * make sure there are 4 references for each project proposal in the next draft (one per group member). Currently I think you have 4 for this project and 2 for the other one. * pls answer carefully for I.2 (b) What population do you want to make inferences about? * your target population is partially defined by your research question above. Please be more specific if you can: only seniors in Pgh, or also those in Kuwait and elsewhere? Only seniors, or any undergrad leaving CMU, etc. * pls answer carefully for I.2: TARGET POPULATION (c) What population will you sample? Is this different from (b)? * The sampling frame should either be a list of students that you can take a random sample from, or a set of students that are well defined by actions you take (e.g. all students that pass by the fence between times X and Y on days A, B and C -- not necessarily a great frame [undercoverage?] but an example of a frame that is not a list). * pls answer carefully for I.2: SAMPLING FRAME (d) How do you plan to carry out the survey & why? * once you have contacted the students, how will they respond? surveymonkey? email answers back to you? meet them for face to face interviews? etc. * whatever the method, nonresponse will be a big issue. - Face to face interviews make for great response rates but would be at least very time consuming to carry out. - if you could get a student phone book from each campus, you could conduct a phone survey. this might be effective at getting better response rates but not use up a ton of your time. - if you could get a list of email addresses for each campus, you could conduct an email or email-and-web survey. - for email/web surveys nonresponse will be a bigger issue. - for email and web surveys, get only about 25% or less response rate. - how can you improve this with followup and/or prenotification (e.g. postcards)? how many times, and how, will you followup? - who responds, who doesn't? how would this affect biases in your results? - if you are stuck with low response rate, what would you need to know or be able to do, to argue either 1. the sample you got is still like a representative probability sample; or 2. you know what adjustments to make so that the sample can be treated as a representative probability sample * pls answer carefully for I.2 MODE OF DATA COLLECTION (e) What variables will you measure? "What do the graduating seniors plan to pursue immediately following graduation (e.g., entry-level job, graduate school, or taking “time off”)? What were the deciding factors in making their decision (e.g. no other options, best salary offer, or life-long dream)?" * These are a good start (and keep them) but you left off some variables that the career center could do something about - e.g. who or what influenced them at carnegie mellon, etc. * pls answer carefully for I.2 ========================================================================== Project Proposal 2: Restructuring Pittsburgh: Feelings on moving the borderlines. OVERALL: * EVERYONE can do a better job of convincing me why each of their projects is interesting enough to actually bother to do. * Think carefully about target population, sampling frame, method of data collection, and what variables/questions it will be important to collect data on, for the revised proposal. These will be especially important to think about for this proposal since, for example, the research question doesn't suggest an obvious target population. * One drawback of this proposal is that it is about a "how do you like it" question. The problem with questions like this is that either the answer is boring (people like it or don't care), or you end up with bad feelings (people don't like it, but no one is going to tear down the Eastside shopping complex, the Home Depot, etc.). The general topic is OK, but try to think of variables, and questions to ask, that will reveal how people want to move forward from where development is right now---e.g. freeze upscale development and do things that leave the area accessible to a broader economic cross-section, continue upscale development, other options? These sorts of questions might guide City Planning, E Lib Development, etc . (a) Interesting research question? Doable? Each team member provides one piece of previous research or results on this question? "We propose to discuss the reconstructing of the lines between Shadyside and East Liberty, and the “East Side” area. ... This is a very pressing and controversial issue in Pittsburgh today. People will have to move business and homes to other places because this issue will change tax rates and will draw a line, if there already isn’t one, between those who can afford to stay and those who cannot. This survey could possibly be done for the Pittsburgh Department of City Planning, East Liberty Development, Inc." * Agree that this is interesting, and the clients you described could possibly do something about the results of the survey. * careful how you talk about the tax issue. The millage rate is uniform across the city; taxes are typically based on assessed value which is usually only calculated when a house is bought/sold. It is true that if the neighborhood lines are redrawn, taxes will go up as assessed value goes up; new buyers from E Lib would be squeezed out by the ticket price of the home, as much as or more than by the taxes. But those who already own homes in E Lib would not see their taxes go up unless their house is reassessed (e.g. if they refinance). * make sure there are 4 references for each project proposal in the next draft (one per group member). Currently I think you have 2 for this project and 4 for the other one. * pls answer carefully for I.2 (b) What population do you want to make inferences about? * Since you answered ABC from the shorter outline you haven't answered this yet. * this is not obvious from your research question. Would you do a survey of households in Shadyside and E Lib? A survey of individuals who work for or are customers of businesses in E Lib, Eastside, and Shadyside? Or... * pls answer carefully for I.2: TARGET POPULATION (c) What population will you sample? Is this different from (b)? * Since you answered ABC from the shorter outline you haven't answered this yet. * The sampling frame should either be a list of possible survey respondents that you can take a random sample from, or a set of respondents that are well defined by actions you take. - If you are interested in households, a list of phone numbers might serve as a frame. - if you are interested in face to face interviews with people at businesses in these areas, the frame might be something like "all customers and employees of business X and Y who can be contacted between times Z and W on days A, B and C" -- not necessarily a great frame [undercoverage? differences between people who frequent those businesses and the "general public" in those neighborhoods? etc.] but an example of a frame that is not a list). * pls answer carefully for I.2: SAMPLING FRAME (d) How do you plan to carry out the survey & why? * pls answer carefully for I.2: MODE OF DATA COLLECTION * once you have contacted the students, how will they respond? surveymonkey? email answers back to you? meet them for face to face interviews? etc. * whatever the method, nonresponse will be a big issue. - Face to face interviews make for great response rates but would be at least very time consuming to carry out. - if you could get a student phone book from each campus, you could conduct a phone survey. this might be effective at getting better response rates but not use up a ton of your time. - if you could get a list of email addresses for each campus, you could conduct an email or email-and-web survey. - for email/web surveys nonresponse will be a bigger issue. - for email and web surveys, get only about 25% or less response rate. - how can you improve this with followup and/or prenotification (e.g. postcards)? how many times, and how, will you followup? - who responds, who doesn't? how would this affect biases in your results? - if you are stuck with low response rate, what would you need to know or be able to do, to argue either 1. the sample you got is still like a representative probability sample; or 2. you know what adjustments to make so that the sample can be treated as a representative probability sample (e) What variables will you measure? "Some of the questions we want to look at include How do you feel about the restructuring of the borderlines, how friends/family will be impacted by the changes, how they feel about the unofficial creation of ‘East Side’. We want to figure out if people think that extending the borders of Shadyside will lead to gentrification and how much members of each of the communities, Shadyside, East Liberty, and East Side, will be affected." * these are mostly "how do you feel", "do you like", and "are you afraid of" questions. Need to augment with questions that more directly address what people would realistically like to see happen next (from where we are now). * also should collect demographics, income information, and other things that might be relevant to what kind of E Lib development (if any) each respondent might prefer. * pls answer carefully for I.2 (f) Sample questions for off-campus project? * pls answer carefully for I.2 ================================================================== Total grade: Project Proposal 1: (out of 48; 8 pts/part) Project Proposal 2: (out of 56; 8 pts/part) ----------------------- Total 104 NOTES: On I.1, everyone gets 100 points, regardless of the comments I made above. On I.2, I will grade each part about out of 8 pts/part. This come out to a bit more than 100 pts, which will just be extra credit for a team that really nails I.2. Each person on the team gets the team score recorded in the gradebook. If your team gets 84 pts on I.2, then each team member gets 84 pts in the gradebook. ==================================================================