The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is offering a virtual academy in response to the ongoing need and desire for professional development by academics during the pandemic.
AERA is the largest U.S. interdisciplinary research association devoted to the scientific study of education and learning. The Virtual Research Learning Series offers nine four-hour courses, the first starting on May 19 and the ninth in mid-September.
The courses address research methodology – quantitative, qualitative and evaluation – and communication and are taught by experts in the respective areas. The courses can be attended live –they run from 1 to 5 p.m. ET — or via on-demand access.
Cost: $35 per course
Brief Description of Courses
Tuesday, May 19 | What Would it Take to Change Your Inference? Quantifying the Discourse about Causal Inferences in the Social Sciences
Statistical inferences are often challenged because of uncontrolled bias. There may be bias due to uncontrolled confounding variables or nonrandom selection into a sample. We will turn concerns about potential bias into questions about how much bias there must be to invalidate an inference. Participants should be comfortable with the general linear model (e.g., multiple regression) and statistical inference.
Thursday, May 21 | How to Get Published: Guidance from Emerging and Established Scholars
This course aimed at graduate students and early-career faculty will provide with critical information about how to publish. The course will begin with an overview of the nuts and bolts of academic publishing. Following this, scholars will present detailed sessions that cover the entire publishing process—from conceptualizing studies to preparing well-crafted manuscripts targeted to relevant journals.
Wednesday, June 3 | Sharing Your Research with the World
This course focuses on how to communicate research to large, diverse audiences. It is appropriate for participants who have researched (or are currently researching) any topic within the education field and who want their findings to reach as many people as possible in order to help as many students as possible.
Thursday, June 4 | Introduction to Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
This interactive course will introduce the basics of systematic review and meta-analysis. Topics covered include developing a research question, searching the literature, evaluating and coding studies, conducting a meta-analysis, and interpreting results for various stakeholders. Participants are encouraged to bring an idea for a systematic review to the course.
Wednesday, June 10 | The Future is Here: Analyzing NAEP Process Data Using R
This course will introduce the unique features of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) process data to researchers and provide necessary guidance on how to appropriately prepare and analyze this new data type. The course will provide participants with hands-on practice training in analyzing NAEP process data using the R statistical analysis language.
Thursday, August 6 | How to Write About Qualitative Research
This interactive course aims to help beginning qualitative researchers—whether they are graduate students writing a qualitative dissertation or those learning qualitative methods so they can do mixed methods research—learn some of the key expectations, practices, and conventions of writing traditional qualitative research. The course focuses on writing, perhaps the least discussed topic in qualitative methods texts and courses.
Wednesday, August 26 | Empowerment Evaluation
This course will highlight how empowerment evaluation produces measurable outcomes with case examples ranging from high tech companies such as Google and Hewlett-Packard to work in rural Arkansas and squatter settlements in South Africa. Employing lecture, activities, demonstration, and discussion, the course will introduce participants to the theory, concepts, principles, and steps of empowerment evaluation as well as the technological tools to facilitate the approach.
Tuesday, September 1 | Using Factor Analysis for Survey Design and Validation
This interactive course provides a primer on survey development and the use of factor analysis to validate surveys. It is intended for educators (including administrators) and researchers at all levels who are either developing, implementing, or contemplating the use of questionnaires for research, program evaluation, or educational purposes. Attendees will need access to SPSS or Stata.
Tuesday, September 15 | Co-Decolonizing Research Methods: Toward Research Sustaining Indigenous and ‘Other’ Community Engaged Ways of Knowing
For those interested or engaged in research produced by or serving Indigenous peoples or people of color in the United States directly or indirectly impacted by colonization, this course provides a way forward toward authentic collaboration with stakeholders and interested parties.
Registration Process
To register or to learn more about the individual courses, click here.
