Dr. Mick Couper, Research Professor in the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, USA, visited the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories on September 17, 2014.

As part of his talk on “Why Design is Important for Web Surveys” he presented various findings from research that he has been carrying out for years in the field of web- and computer-based surveys. He illustrated his findings with practical and praxis-oriented examples from well-known surveys such as the American Census. The examples shown were discussed with regard to minimization of measurement error and the resulting improvement of data quality. The approximately 40 guests used the remaining time to discuss the findings as well as questions concerning computer and web-based instruments for studies conducted by LIfBi.