Monday, June 05, 2017

Random sample video from @pewresearch #researchmethods

The Pew Research Center conducts good quality research into aspects of (US) American life, and I have highlighted numerous of their reports about Americans' use of the internet, social media etc. They seem to have started a series about research methods, and the first is a short (2 mins 25 second) video about random samples. Obviously they can't cram a complete description of sampling into under 3 minutes, but it is a nice introduction. When teaching research methods, I find that the fact that "random" can mean "any old thing" in ordinary language can prevent people from realising that random samples are definitely not composed of whatever sample happens to come along. The introduction and video are at http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/12/methods-101-random-sampling/ and I have also embedded it below



No comments: