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\large\bf
36-303: Sampling, Surveys and Society\\
Notes on Team Working Assignments\\
Mon Feb 27 , 2012
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Here is an updated schedule of Team Project Assignments, up through
Spring Break (and just beyond).  I will make ``turnitin'' links on
blackboard for all assignments (each assignment should be a single file),
unless otherwise noted below.

\section*{So far\ldots}

\begin{description}
\item[I.0] Teams Formed\ldots
\item[I.1] Propose Two Topics\ldots
\item[I.2] Revise proposals\ldots
\item[I.3] Choose Topic (Thu Feb 16).  Revised items A.--G.

\item[Team Working Agreements] (Thur Feb 23) [see
  separate handout -- online at\\ \verb|http://www.stat.cmu.edu/~brian/303|]

\end{description}


\section*{Upcoming\ldots}

The remaining Team Project Assignments will more or less follow the
``designing a sample survey'' outline from the beginning of the
semester.  {\em DATES AND DETAILS HAVE CHANGED; PLEASE READ BELOW.}
\begin{description}

\item[II.4. Sampling Scheme \& Question Design {\em  (Fri Mar 2)}] ~
\begin{enumerate}
    \item[K.]  SAMPLING SCHEME: Decide on a sampling scheme (e.g., SRS, 
      Stratified random sample, etc.) and explain why you chose it.  
      
      {\bf Notes:} Every team should decide whether (a) or (b) below fits 
      them better and answer following the directions for that choice:
      \begin{enumerate}
      \item {\bf Any project with a clear sampling frame}
      (a physical list [on 
      paper, in a book, in a computer file, etc.] of 
      individual units---people, records, etc.---in the population) 
      should choose either:
      \begin{itemize}
      \item {\em SRS without replacement:} take one sample 
      from the whole frame; or
      \item {\em Stratified SRS without replacement:} divide up 
      the population into a small number of groups or strata
      (e.g. Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors) and then take
      a separate SRS in each group (stratum).
      \end{itemize}
      If you are concerned that the responses to your survey questions 
      may differ among different groups of the population, then a 
      stratified sample makes sense, and can reduce your sample size. 
      If all groups in the population are going to respond in the same 
      way, then a stratified SRS would just be extra work that won't 
      reduce your sample size (so choose a plain SRS without replacement).  
      {\em (Write at least one paragraph justifying your choice.)}
      
      \item {\bf If you do not have an actual, physical list} (on paper, in a
      book, in a computer file, etc.) of individual units in your
      population, then you do not have the means to do either kind of SRS 
      above.  This typically happens if your units are physical objects
      like houses, buses, locations, etc.  Often the observations you take
      will depend on time of day and/or day of week as well.  In this case
      you should write out a careful plan for sampling units from your 
      population.  This may involve random or planned sampling of units 
      in the population, days of the week, times of day, etc.  {\em (A
      sufficient plan will take a page or more to write, and may include
      text, tables, etc., to make clear what you are planning, \ul{and to
      explain how you plan minimizes coverage error}.)}
                  
      \end{enumerate}
      
      
    \item[L.]  QUESTIONNAIRE OR OBSERVATIONAL PROTOCOL:
      Write a questionnaire with 20--30 questions.  Up to
      approximately 1/3 of these can be background or demographic
      questions and the rest should be directly related to the
      research questions you will try to answer with your survey.\\[0.5em]
      {\bf NOTE:} If your survey involves observations on units (buses, cars,
      locations, etc.) instead of asking people questions, then instead 
      you should carefully describe your {\em observation protocol}.  
      That is, list 20--30 things you will always look for when observing 
      each unit in your survey.\\[0.5em]
      {\em (This should take a page or more to do well.)}
      
    \item[M.] SAMPLE SIZE: Give some idea of the sample size you will 
      require and how you arrived at this number (talk about the 
      margin of error for inferences you want to make):
      \begin{itemize}
      \item Choose one important question in from your questionnaire 
      or observational protocol.  It can be a yes/no 
      question or a quantitative response like age, distance, an amount of
      money (a fee or a charge for example).  
      
      \item Choose a margin of error (MOE) that makes sense for that 
      question and calculate the size of an SRS without replacement 
      needed to achieve that MOE.  {\em NOTE: A part of your grade here
      will be making the MOE as small as possible without making your
      sample size unreasonably large, so you will want to try several
      different MOEs.} \\[0.5em]
      I want every team to do this calculation for a plain SRS without
      replacement---even if you will not be using this exact method
      in your survey.  We will discuss how to modify your sample size
      calculation to fit your your sampling scheme in part K. above 
      later in the course.
 
      \end{itemize}
      {\em (Part M. will take 1/2 page or more depending on how many MOE's 
      you show, to justify that you have chosen a small MOE that doesn't
      make your sample size unreasonably large.)}
\end{enumerate}

\item[II.5. Pretest \& Revise Questions {\em  (Thu Mar 8)}] ~
\begin{enumerate}
    \item[N.]  Pretest of a revised version of your questionnaire (or
      observation protocol) on a group of possible respondents/units.
    \item[O.]  Report on the specification of and results from the
      pretest, and any redesign of the questionnaire (or observation
      protocol) that may be required.
\end{enumerate}
{\em (Please include both your old and revise questionnaire/protocol, and 
write a couple of paragraphs describing how many respondents/units you used
in the pretest, how similar they were to units in the population, and the
changes you made in the survey based on this pretest.)}

\item[IRB form {\em (Thu Mar 8)}] ~\\
If your project involves human respondents:
\begin{itemize}
\item Turn in a draft informed consent form.  This should be about one
paragraph long, and should cover all the informed consent issues raised 
in Groves, Table 11.4 (see lectures, week 04 of class).
\item If you have not already done so, fill out the IRB form posted online at\\ 
  \verb|http://www.stat.cmu.edu/~brian/303|.  You do not need
  to include any of the attachments.
\end{itemize}
If your project does not involve human respondents you do not have to
do this.

\item[Peer Evaluation {\em (Thu Mar 8)}] ~\\
  Please fill out and submit, in email, peer evaluations for your group.  
  For example, if
  you have a five-person group, each person should submit 4 evaluation
  sheets: one for each other person in your group (for a total of 20
  sheets from your group!).  Peer evaluation sheets are available
  on-line at \verb|http://www.stat.cmu.edu/~brian/303|. \\[0.5em]
%
You will be graded {\em both} on submitting a full set of peer
evaluations for your group {\em and} what other members of your group
say about you in their peer evaluations of you.\\[0.5em]
%
{\bf Attach all your evaluations to one email, and send to brian@stat.cmu.edu,
with 36303 in the subject line.  Each student should submit only one
email to me.}

\item[II.6 Project Plan {\em (Tue Mar 20)}] ~
\begin{itemize}
\item Final, full project proposal (items A-M on the
``designing a sample survey'' handout, except don't include the IRB form 
[item I]).
\begin{itemize}
\item This should be easy: copy and update the latest thing you have 
  done for each of the items A-M up to now into a single electronic file 
  to submit on blackboard.
  for each team. 
\item From this proposal, anyone outside our class should be able to
  read and understand completely what you are proposing to do.
\end{itemize}
\end{itemize}

\end{description}


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% old revision from 2011
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\item[] {\bf OLD STUFF BELOW -- BJ}

\item[II.4] Target Pop, Sampling Plan, Sampling Frame, Nonresponse Plan
  (Tue Feb 15; \ul{one page}, submit to Blackboard) 
\begin{itemize}
\item Clearly define a \ul{\em target population} that you can reach in
  your survey
\item Clearly discuss your \ul{\em sampling plan}: How will you obtain
  a representative sample from the the target population  you
  defined?
\begin{description}
\item[If you are using] {\bf a sampling frame and random sampling
this should involve:}
\begin{itemize}
\item Clearly define a \ul{\em sampling frame}: a list of persons in
  the target population from which you can draw a random sample.
  Acceptable frames include: (a) list of email addresses from which
  you can draw an SRS without replacement; (b) set of phone numbers or
  prefixes that you can use for random-digit dialling (this is again
  an SRS without replacement); (c) list or map of blocks, addresses,
  or similar geographic information you can use to randomly select
  houses or businesses or parking meters to approach; etc. 
\item Clearly discuss how you will use the sampling frame to obtain a
  representative sample.  Simple Random Sample (SRS)?  Stratified Sample?
  Clustered Sample? 
\end{itemize}
\item[If you are sampling] {\bf \ul{\bf not} using a frame and/or \ul{\bf not}
  using random sampling, this should involve:}
\begin{itemize}
\item Clearly describe your plan for obtaining a sample from your
  target population.  Acceptable plans include: (a) careful design of
  of times/dates/locations, where you will approach respondents or 
  objects in survey; (b) a method of approaching or selecting 
  respondents or objects that removes
  respondent self-selection bias {\em and} interviewer selection bias;
  (c) a strong argument, based on verifiable facts and references,
  that this plan will have good coverage of your target population.
\item Clearly discuss how you will treat different locations or
  occasions for your observations: Will you throw all observations
  into one big group and analyze it like a SRS?  Will you treat
  different locations/occasions like a Stratified Sample?  Will you
  treat them like a Clustered Sample?
\end{itemize}
\end{description}
\item Clearly discuss how you will deal with \ul{\em nonresponse}:
\item What will you do about reminding or following-up nonresponders?
\item If you suspect your sample is not representative of the target
  population, what adjustments do you anticipate making?
\end{itemize}
% \end{itemize}
% \end{itemize}

\item[II.5a] Sampling Scheme \& Question Design (Thu Feb 24; email
  attachment to brian@stat.cmu.edu; I will only provide feedback if
  needed)
\begin{itemize}
\item Items K, L, M on the ``designing a sample survey''
  outline
\item Items K and M should be 1/2 page each.  Item L should be however
  long is needed.
\item For item M, please also include information on oversampling to
  compensate for nonresponse.  For example, if you anticipate a 25\%
  response rate and you want a sample size of 120, how many
  respondents should you approach?
  \begin{itemize}
    \item  I want every group to do this calculation for SRS without
      replacement -- even if you will not be using this exact method
      in your survey.
    \item If your group is planning to use a Stratified Sample or a
      Clustered Sample, we will discuss ways to adjust this sample
      size for these designs later in the semester.
    \item If your group is planning a non-framed or non-random sample,
      you will need to figure out how to (afford to) take a sample at
      least twice as large as the SRS w/o replacement calculation.
  \end{itemize}
\end{itemize}
\item[II.5b] Pretest \& Revise Questions (Tue Mar 1; email
  brian@stat.cmu.edu ONLY part O.  I will provide feedback only if needed.)
\begin{itemize}
\item Items N, O on the ``designing a sample survey'' handout
\end{itemize}
