Event details

Academic Skills	Digital Literacy	Personal Development	Responsibility	Sustainability	Work Environment

Data literacy stands for the ability to handle data securely and thoughtfully. Sensitive and personal information is often released unconsciously ‘within a click’. However, data can have a very high value, so it is all the more the responsibility of researchers to handle data sensitively, critically and reflectively. This seminar aims to shed light on the professional handling of data and teach methods that help to generate valid results. This includes formulating a research question, formulating a hypothesis, determining suitable variables, constructing a questionnaire and selecting suitable software. In order to successfully master the research project, this course teaches the basics of conducting an (online) survey and discusses practical examples.

After the course:

– Know the methodological basics for conducting an (online) survey (basic terms, survey processes, etc.)

– You will have gained an insight into survey methodology (measurement theory, quality criteria, dealing with standardized designs)

– Are you familiar with the basics of data protection in surveys?

– Gained insights into ongoing projects and completed surveys at KIT

– Were able to test your knowledge in initial practical exercises.

– Were able to implement sample surveys in survey software.

Important: In addition to the seminar day, this course includes a self-study phase (Ilias modules) in the period from 08.01.-21.01.2026.

Workload:

1 ECTS: active participation in the seminar and completion of the online modules (approx. 24 hours of independent work)

2 ECTS: active participation in the seminar, completion of the online modules (approx. 24 hours of independent work) and taking on a transfer task (will be announced in the course)

Lecturer:

Sophia Horn is a sociologist at the ITZ, Department of Sociology and Computational Social Science. She is interested in emergent phenomena and deals with social influence and social norms. Her research is mainly based on quantitative methods of empirical social research, including surveys and laboratory experiments

Michael Mäs is a proud sociologist. His research deals with complex systems such as social networks on the Internet, which he investigates using formal approaches and quantitative methods of social research (surveys, network analysis, laboratory and field experiments). He has published in the fields of sociology, economics, physics, biology and computer science, among others.