AIR/SPSS IR Applications Webinar Series

The Association for Institutional Research and SPSS have partnered on a series of exclusive Webinars designed to help you improve the practice of institutional research.

With topics ranging from data analysis to data mining to data collection, this monthly series will equip you with the tools, tips and techniques to help you succeed. Expert speakers from around the world will share their knowledge with a combination of best practices and demonstrations to help you apply new thinking, techniques and technology to your organization.

Below is a list of upcoming and past events, including links to Webinar recordings and files.

Structural Equation Modeling for Institutional Researchers: Applications using SPSS & AMOS. Part 3: Structural Equation Models: Using AMOS to Explain Relationships Between Constructs (5/24/07)

Presenters: Dr. Mary Ann Coughlin, Professor of Research and Statistics at Springfield College & Bill Knight, Assistant Vice President for Planning and Accountability at Bowling Green State University.
Description: Part 3 of this 3 part Webinar series will focus on structural equation modeling and its application within the field of Institutional Research. SEM is used to explore relationships between constructs based upon established theory. Often institutional researchers are called upon to develop and test research models in order to make recommendations for policy and practice. By viewing this Webinar you will review the basic statistical principles of SEM and will see it performed using AMOS in a case study example involving NSSE and CCSSE data.

Making Open-ended Survey Questions Count (5/17/07)

Presenter: Sherri Sahs, formerly of Embry Riddle University
Description: This Webinar will teach you how open-ended survey data from institutional research can be better managed. SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys 2.0 will be demonstrated and you will see how you can…

• Turn text into quantitative data
• Save even more time by automating the creation of categories and the coding of responses
• Uncover category relationships using visualizations such as bar charts and tables
• Export results to Excel, SPSS or other software for analysis

Structural Equation Modeling for Institutional Researchers: Applications using SPSS & AMOS. Part 2: Confirmatory Factor Analysis: Using AMOS to Confirm a Hypothesized Factor Structure (4/26/07)

Presenters: Dr. Mary Ann Coughlin, Professor of Research and Statistics at Springfield College & Bill Knight, Assistant Vice President for Planning and Accountability at Bowling Green State University.
Description: Part two of this Webinar series will focus on confirmatory factor analysis and its application within the field of Institutional Research. Expanding on our first Webinar that explored Senior Survey data to reduce the data and propose a factor structure, this next Webinar will take the next step and use AMOS to explore confirmatory factor analysis. The Webinar will discuss the basis of Structural Equation Modeling and describe how confirmatory factor analysis allows use to create a measurement model that can then be used to propose and test a structural model. This Webinar will introduce participants into the use of AMOS software and will provide two different examples of confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS.
Webinar Audio and Slides

Webinar Slides Only (688 kbs PDF)

Structural Equation Modeling for Institutional Researchers: Applications using SPSS & AMOS. Part 1: Exploratory Factor Analysis: Using SPSS to Create Factors (3/22/07)

Presenters: Dr. Mary Ann Coughlin, Professor of Research and Statistics at Springfield College & Bill Knight, Assistant Vice President for Planning and Accountability at Bowling Green State University.
Description: Part one of this Webinar series will focus on factor analysis and its application within the field of Institutional Research. Factor analysis explores the relationships among variables to discover if those variables can be grouped into a smaller set of underlying factors. Often Institutional Researchers are faced with the difficult task of summarizing numerous variables from a survey into a smaller set of factors. By viewing this Webinar you will review the basic statistical principles of factor analysis and will see factor analysis performed in SPSS using a case study example from a senior survey.
Webinar Audio and Slides

Webinar Slides (1.53 mb PDF)

Data Mining Workshop: Introducing Data Mining to Institutional Researchers (10/20/06)

Presenters: Dr. Lin Chang, Director of Institutional Research and Analysis at Colorado State University-Pueblo
Description: In this workshop you will learn how data mining can address research issues that traditional methods fail to address. You will walk away with practical information on what to expect when implementing data mining and how to plan for success. The morning session will focus on the background of data mining and some of the underlying statistics that power it. The afternoon session will feature a hands-on demonstration where you will walk through some real examples.

Webinar Slides (497 kbs PDF)

The Rule of the Tool (10/13/06)

Presenters: Dr. Linda Mallory, Office of Institutional Research, US Naval Academy
Play time: 58 minutes
Description: This Webinar presented by Dr. Linda Mallory will start out by covering the basics of what statistics can and cannot do, then delve into what both Excel and SPSS have to offer. Attendees will see a demonstration illustrating data management techniques that can save you time and eliminate hassles. You will also learn how to reduce the amount of time spent on data management tasks such as merging files, re-setting formulas and analyzing segments of data.
Webinar Audio and Slides

Webinar Slides (220 kbs PDF)

Improve your Online Data Collection and Data Management (6/23/06)

Presenters: Dr. Robert Ploutz-Snyder
Play time: 75 minutes
Description: Discover how to create and deploy surveys within using many of the features from SPSS’ Dimensions platform. mrInterview (part of the Dimensions platform) is designed to help you create sophisticated online surveys and perform survey analyses easily and quickly. This tool has a variety of features that allow you maximum flexibility when developing, distributing, and analyzing surveys. View this Webinar and learn how you can securely develop, field, collect, route, and analyze data for a variety of survey research projects, including:

• Course and program evaluations
• Student and facility self assessments
• Admissions data trending studies

Webinar Audio and Slides

Webinar Slides (2.1 mb PDF)

Moving Beyond the Basics: Get an Edge in Institutional Research w/ Data Mining (12/12/06)

Presenters: Dr. Jing Luan, Chief Planning, Research & Knowledge Systems Officer, Cabrillo College
Play time: 60 minutes
Description: This informative event will also demystify the five common myths about data mining, and address the specific advantages of data mining, such as algorithmic bias analysis, intra/inter algorithm validation, and explain why data mining will co-exist with traditional statistical analysis. Attendees will also see:

• How Clementine can help you with reporting needs
• Where cluster analysis fits in predictive modeling
• Summary of examples of cluster and predictive analysis

Webinar Audio and Slides

Webinar Slides (1.48 mb PDF)

Making Open Ended Questions Count with SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys (4/4/06)

Presenters: Hetal Thaker
Description: View this FREE Webinar for a closer look at the newest version of SPSS text analysis software, SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys 2.0. Making your survey text responses usable in quantitative analysis and decision-making just got easier! Whether you’re already using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys, or just want to see it in action, you don’t want to miss this Webinar. You’ll see a live demo of some of the new features and enhancements in SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys 2.0, including

• Project sharing: Projects can be stored as files on the hard drive so that users can easily share and manage projects
• Category import and export: Categories (and definitions) can be exported and shared with other users. This enables the convenient reuse of category work in new projects (with no categories)
• Graphing enhancements: Imported reference variables can be overlaid onto category bar charts to aid category profiling
• Conditional rules for categories: Logical expressions can be created using extraction results and Boolean operators. These rules enable response categorization based on more complex information and erroneous response filtering
• Coding progress tracking: Responses can be marked as "complete" or "important" to monitor coding progress. These "flags" can be exported

Webinar Slides (117 kbs PDF)

An Introduction to Data Mining for Institutional Research (11/29/05)

Presenters: Dr. Thulasi Kumar, Director of Institutional Research, University of Northern Iowa
Play time: 30 minutes
Description: Recent developments at many colleges and universities have opened the door for the analysis of large quantities of admissions, students, and course data. As a result, data mining techniques have become increasingly popular for institutional data analysis. At this free event, you'll see:

• How data mining can help organizations understand, predict, and address areas such as academics, admissions, and even alumni donations
• How data mining has the potential to shift the institutional research function from a retrospective accounting function to a prospective management function
• Practical approaches to getting started with data mining

Webinar Audio and Slides

Webinar Slides (193 kbs PDF)

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