Data Collection and Organization: Apply It 2

Data Collection

Different survey questions offer different advantages and disadvantages for data collection. For example, it may be easier to remember how much time you spent on your phone yesterday compared to questions about your general habits, but a single day of phone use may not be representative of your phone use in general. The next few questions ask you to consider a statistical question that allows for many different options for collecting data, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

Work in groups of two or three to complete the remainder of this activity.

Question 4

Suppose you want to investigate whether there is a relationship between a student’s phone use in class and their grades. Write survey questions or state variable names to answer the first two questions below.

 

Part A: List three ways that you could measure phone use. Make sure your list involves at least one categorical variable and at least one quantitative variable.

 

Part B: List three ways that you could measure grades. Make sure your list involves at least one categorical variable and at least one quantitative variable.

Part C: Revisit the lists that you made in Parts A and B. Which of the approaches do you like the best?

When developing the variables to collect data in the question above, you considered individuals as the observational units. How might your variable selections change if the observational unit shifts from individuals to class sections of students? Keep in mind that variables should be characteristic of the observational units as you answer Question 5 next. How should the data collection change when observing class sections rather than individuals?

Question 5

Suppose you want to investigate the relationship between phone use in class and grades using class sections as the observational units instead of individual students. Write survey questions or state variable names to answer both of the questions below.

 

Part A: Name one way you could measure phone use in a class section.

Part B: Name one way you could measure grades in a class section.

Ethical Issues

Think back on the survey questions and variables given in this activity as well as the ones you wrote to answer Questions 4 and 5. Do you have any ethical concerns about the data collection plans proposed? Some examples to consider include:

  • In what ways could the data collection process or the information revealed cause some students to be treated differently than others?
  • In what ways could the questions asked or methods of collection cause the data to imply associations that are not representative of the true situation?
  • Are there any ethical considerations surrounding how the collected data will be stored?

Example

Privacy concerns in data collection are paramount. You may be familiar with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule.[1] For individuals at least 18 years old, this rule prevents the individual’s medical information from being revealed to anyone who the individual has not identified as eligible to receive it.

A similar exists for college students at least 18 years old. A federal law called the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA),[2][3] protects the privacy of student records.

How could data collection and storage when studying phone use and grades protect the privacy of student information?

Work in pairs or groups to summarize your understanding of the ethical concerns associated with data collection and storage as you answer Question 6.

question 6

Are there any ethical concerns associated with a study of phone use and grades?

[Note: a question could be inserted here to specifically add an LO for ethics as needed.]

  1. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/special-topics/de-identification/index.html ↵
  2. null ↵
  3. The U.S. Department of Education provides information about FERPA on their website: https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa ↵