Course

Interviews and Questionnaires in the Natural and Environmental Sciences

Organised by Wageningen Institute for Environment and Climate Research (WIMEK)
Date

Mon 6 January 2025 until Fri 31 January 2025

Duration The course runs from 9h to 17h on scheduled days.
Venue Wageningen University on campus room B1032 (Orion)

Scope

Interviews and Questionnaires in the Natural and Environmental Sciences enable PhDs who do not have a background in the social sciences to design, conduct, analyze and report interviews and questionnaires. Foundational learning objectives are met through participating in a MSc course (YRM31306). In addition to responding to questions during the course that are specific to PhDs’ own projects, enhanced learning objectives for PhDs are met through a) individual consultations with PhDs during and after the course and b) replacement of the written final exam with a delayed critical discussion in which the PhD explains why and how they will integrate what they learned into their own PhD project. The approach to interviews and questionnaires taken in the course is tailored to the themes and purposes typical of research at Wageningen.

Learning goals

After successful completion of this course/programme students are expected to be able to:

  • Work out and scientifically justify a conceptual design for an interview and for a questionnaire
  • Be able to design an interview and a questionnaire appropriate for purpose and context following taught design principles
  • Identify when, and with whom, to collaborate in the design, execution and analysis of interviews and questionnaires
  • Transparently report meaningful analyses of interview and questionnaire data, taking into account a life cycle approach and ethical concerns

Contents

During this course students will follow interactive sessions where core principles will be explained and then applied in groups to concrete research projects. In-class discussions and (roleplay) exercises will be used to stimulate effective learning. There will be practicals using Atlas.ti and RStudio to analyse the data. With the help of instructor and peer feedback, students will learn about, and practice with, the complete cycle of research design, pre-testing, data collection, coding and analysis for both semi-structured interviews and structured questionnaires (with the latter building on the outcomes of the former).

  • Work out and justify a conceptual design (or 'blueprint’) for the interview guide and for the questionnaire
  • Design a practical interview guide based on the blueprint and following taught design principles
    • Pre-test the questionnaire using appropriate interviewing techniques
    • Code and analyze interview data using methods such as inductive and deductive content analysis in Atlas.ti
    • Construct and test scales for a questionnaire using Cronbach’s alpha and Principal Component Analysis in RStudio
    • Conduct meaningful statistical analysis of questionnaires using among others general linear models and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)

Programme

Week/day Content
1/1 Introduction to qualitative research, the course and qualitative description. Analysis of case text
1/2 Introduction to problem centred interviewing, and creation of a sensitizing framework
1/3 Creation of an introduction email, securing informed consent, getting an adequate opening account
1/4 Interview body, transcription, descriptive variables
1/5 Interview practice
2/1 Exit and debriefing, finalise interview design, conduct full interview(s) for class project
2/2 Individual and class analysis of interviews
2/3 Free
2/4 Introduction to questionnaire design
2/5 Operationalisation (practice and ethics), question selection, blueprint creation
3/1 Question formatting and order, introductory and closure texts, informed consent, lay-out
3/2 Pretesting questionnaires with cognitive interviews, revising questionnaire
3/3 Descriptive variables and bivariate associations
3/4 General linear models
3/5 Free
4/1 Introduction questionnaire scaling and reliability. Cronbach's alpha to assess scale reliability in RStudio and apply Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
4/2 Conduct confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to validate questionnaire constructs.
4/3 Apply a life cycle approach in data reporting and interpretation. Ethical concerns related to interviews and questionnaires will be discussed, and you will learn to transparently report findings and conclusions while ensuring ethical research practices
End January One hour (minimum) consultation with instructor on integration of course material into PhD trajectory

General information

Registration deadline

Early bird registration deadline before the 31st of October
Regular registration deadline is after the 31st of October until the 9th of December

Registration form

Target group

PhD candidates outside of the Social Sciences

Mandatory required knowledge

No prior knowledge is required. For the final assessment PhDs will need to identify a task in their project that will require interviews and/or questionnaires.

Group size

Maximum: 10

Credit points

6 EC

Hours

The course runs from 9h to 17h on scheduled days.

Fee

WUR PhDs with TSP €500 (early bird) / €550 (regular)
SENSE PhDs, WIMEK postdoc's and WIMEK staff €950 (early bird) / €1000 (regular)
Other PhDs €990 (early bird) / €1040 (regular)
All other academic staff €1050 (early bird) / €1100 (regular)
Others/non-academic €1800 (early bird) / €1850 (regular)

Cancellation conditions

Up to 4 (four) weeks prior to the start of the course, cancellation is free of charge.

Up to 2 (two) weeks prior to the start of the course, a fee of € 150,- will be charged.

In case of cancellation within two weeks prior to the start of the course, a fee of € 250,- will be charged.

If you do not show at all, a fee of € 500,- will nevertheless be charged.

Note: If you would like to cancel your registration, ALWAYS inform us.