1. Accessing National Surveys with Electronic Research Sources (ANSWERS) SHEEO/NCES Network Conference & IPEDS Workshop May 24, 2001 John Milam University of Virginia

2. Presentation Topics Introduction to project, w/ purpose & audiences Project funding & support info Working group Discussion of completed activities Status report – other activities What ANSWERS has to offer SHEEOs How to find the ANSWERS – site demonstration http://nces.ed.gov/npec/answers

3. Purpose Describe & analyze information on frequently used surveys of higher education institutions Promote better use of the national datasets Provide a compendium of definitions and questions for best practices in survey development Reduce data collection burden Improve comparability of data across surveys with de facto standards

4. Audiences Survey developers Institutional researchers and planners Policy analysts Associations SHEEOs/State agencies Federal education agencies The Media

5. Project Info Funded by NCES through NPEC Nearing end of second year Funding set for year 3 Working Group headed by Deb Teeter NPEC support from NCES & Westat Project housed at University of Virginia John Milam as Project Director/P.I. URL is: http://nces.ed.gov/npec/answers

6. Vic Borden (IUPUI) Nancy Borkow (NCES) Susan Broyles (NCES) Dennis Carroll (NCES) Jason Casey (HEDS) Mark Chisholm (U. New Mexico) Rene Gernand (College Board) Denise Glover (Westat) Jacqueline King (ACE) Roslyn Korb (NCES) Hans L’Orange (SHEEO/NCES) Meredith Ludwig (ESSI/NCES) Tod Massa (Willamette Univ) Sally Mydlowec (Manor Junior College) Sam Peng (NCES) Travis Reindl (AASCU) Paula Reis (NCHEMS) Terry Russell (AIR) Mary Sapp (Univ. of Miami) Alan Sturtz (Conn. State Univ. System) Deb Teeter (Univ of Kansas) Bob Wallhaus (NPEC) Jeff Weber (Indiana Comm. for Higher Ed) Working Group

7. Completed Activities Site housed on NCES server w/ ASP & SQL Server software Provides info on core survey developers Inventory of national, non-standard surveys Analyzes the data dictionaries of major surveys & puts in usable format Offers a matrix of data sources by topic Provides citations about survey development and using the national datasets

8. Completed Activities – cont. Provides a critical analysis & comparison of definitions and survey questions Provided feedback to the VIOLIN project about needs for data and burden reduction Promoting the ANSWERS products to intended audiences w/ special audience pages Evaluating the success, site usage, & limitations of the project and products

9. Status report – other activities Provide technical assistance to users with online help & tutorials Provide “bridge pages” between ANSWERS and the actual data to help users go the next step Provide calendar of data collections Add additional surveys to matrix & inventory Refine content analysis for listing by topic Help convene groups of federal & state users to share data and promote burden reduction

10. What does ANSWERS have to offer SHEEOs? Need data quickly? Find data for performance indicators? Resolve problems with a dataset? Address concern over dirty data? Address heavy reporting burden? Construct a new survey? Find best definition? ????

11. How to find the ANSWERS? http://nces.ed.gov/npec/answers

12. Contact Info John Milam Research Associate Professor Curry School of Education University of Virginia 405 Emmet St. South P.O. Box 400265 Charlottesville, VA 22903-4265 (804) 243-8746 jmilam@virginia.edu Internet Resources for Institutional Research http://airweb.org/links