Survey Design - WGSA Workshop

Hello, Warnell! This week's WGSA Workshop will be on survey design focusing on human dimension and social sciences research. Sarah Horsley and Lauren Mullenbach will be leading the discussion. The workshop will be held in the Deans' Conference Room starting at 4:30 on Wednesday March 18th. Hope to see you there! A description of the discussion is below.

Ever have a grant application ask for outreach/education impacts and wonder how you're supposed to figure that out? Or just interested human dimensions research in general? We have the WGSA workshop for you! This survey design workshop will teach you the basics of creating surveys/questionnaires to use in research. We will look into the components of good surveys, tips for writing clear and concise questions, and the steps that are needed to make sure your survey is valid and reliable. 

WGSA Workshop - SDM

UPDATE: Files from this workshop can be accessed using the links below:

Presentation
Workshop Handout
Salamander SDM
Salamander SDM - Completed

This week's WGSA Workshop will be on the topic of Structured Decision Making (SDM), led by Tara Crawford and Brian Crawford. This workshop will take place Wednesday March 4th in the Dean's Conference Room at 4:00pm. A description of what will be covered is below.

Most natural resource management and conservation issues that we face today involve complex social-ecological interactions; diverse groups of people wanting different things, a variety of potential management/policy solutions under consideration, and uncertainties that impair our understanding of the systems we wish to manage and the outcomes of alternative management options. Structured Decision Making (SDM) is one approach used to decompose such decision problems through a series of steps that help identify which management or policy alternatives bring us closest to achieving our objectives. This workshop will briefly introduce the basic principles, steps, and uses of this approach for addressing natural resource issues. Participants will gain experience in SDM through a mock decision analysis in which each participant will play the role of a stakeholder in the context of a mock decision problem. We will quickly work through each step in the SDM process and ultimately arrive at a decision for managing a new (imaginary) species of salamander discovered to inhabit UGA’s Oconnee Forest. 

Things to do/download/read prior to workshop: Nothing. See you there!

2015 WGSA Symposium Proceedings

Thank you to everyone who presented, attended, and volunteered to help make this year's symposium a great success! The proceedings from the meeting are below.