PhD Courses in Denmark

Welcome to Methods for data collection with human subjects

Description: 

Much of technical scientific research has as an ultimate goal to develop technological devices that will be used by people. Either as services, or products that may end up being an integral part of peoples’ lives. In order to investigate if a given technology can be used in a given context, experiments with human subjects are indispensable. These types of experiments can be time consuming and expensive and if not properly designed and executed the results may not be reliable.

This course takes both a theoretical and practical approach to data collection from human subjects, in order to avoid mistakes and common pitfalls while improving the reliability of the results. From an understanding of cognitive and perceptual processes of human interaction with the environment, we will investigate implications of these processes in different data collection scenarios.

The scenarios presented will be based on research activities such as: Evaluation of sound environments and interactive control, hearing aid aided performance ratings, listening effort, etc. 

The course consist of lectures and practical work, where you will design and participate in experiments. The course is organized in to four sessions, 2 days in March and 2 days in April.    

Prerequisites: 

Knowledge of basic data analysis models, such as CHI-square, T-tests, ANOVA is an advantage, but not strictly required. Programming in any language capable of making simple user interfaces and data analysis, such as Python or Matlab.

The course is intended for for participants that are planning to run a data collection experiments with human subjects during their PhD work.

Learning objectives: 

    Understand ethical and practical implications of using humans as test subjects.

    Understand and learn to work with rules and regulations for personal data (GDPR).

    Understand how to avoid common mistakes in the experimental design.

    Understand and know the importance of familiarisation and training.

    Understand and learn to apply methods for balancing levels of independent variables.

    Understand and be able to work with variability in subjective responses.

    Be able to implement methods for data collection that can minimise subject bias.

    Be able to implement and work with difference judgements, rating scales and forced choice methods.

    Be able to derive scales of perception based on human responses.

Organizer: 

Rodrigo Ordoñez

Lecturers: 

Rodrigo Ordoñez, Nik Kharlamov and others

ECTS: 3

Time: 

20 - 21 March, 24 - 25 April 2025

Place: Aalborg University

Zip code: 9220

City: Aalborg

Maximal number of participants: 30

Deadline: 27 February 2025