Social Science Basics for Coastal Managers

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101 Pivers Island Rd Beaufort NC 28516

Social Science Basics for Coastal Managers 

This training is led by staff from NOAA's Office for Coastal Management

  • Rescheduled Date: Thursday, July 11
  • Time: 9:00am - 5:00pm
  • Location: NOAA Beaufort Lab Auditorium, 101 Pivers Island Rd, Beaufort NC
  • Cost: FREE!
  • Registration 
  • Continuing education credits: AICP will receive 6.5 CMs for participation

Training Description

The social sciences are a valuable but often overlooked element of coastal zone management. Issues from marsh restoration to flood mitigation all involve critical human elements— knowledge, values, and attitudes—of the people that live, work, and play in these areas. This training provides the basic knowledge and skills to help coastal managers understand their stakeholders.

This course assumes participants have an understanding of the importance of stakeholder engagement. The course will build upon this understanding in the modules highlighted below:

Conducting Interviews

This module provides participants with the knowledge to create an “interview guide” tool and conduct effective interviews that can be used in multiple resource management settings. You will learn how to:

  • Recognize three types of interviews, as well as their purposes, strengths, and limitations
  • Construct an interview guide using best practices for question construction and sequencing
  • Design and conduct a mock interview, ensuring that all components are included
  • Critique mock interviews and identify best practices and common pitfalls for execution of an interview

Leading Focus Groups

This module offers an introduction to the practice of planning and administering focus groups as a research and engagement tool. Participants will achieve a better understanding of the appropriate use of focus groups, as well as best practices and approaches. You will learn how to:

  • Recognize when it is appropriate to use a focus group to gather information
  • Identify the strengths and limitations of using a focus group
  • Successfully plan and conduct a focus group
  • Design and participate in a mock focus group, ensuring that all components are included
  • Critique a mock focus group, and identify best practices and common pitfalls

Writing Effective Survey Questions

Surveys are a popular information collection tool to help coastal managers understand their stakeholders and quickly assess large populations. Unfortunately, because of their popularity, many people untrained in survey creation administer poorly designed surveys that yield questionable results. This module serves to provide coastal managers with best practices to write more effective survey questions. You will learn how to:

  • Review and critique surveys, and identify common mistakes in question design
  • Incorporate 25 best practices when creating survey questions
  • Create appropriate question layout and design
  • Identify ways to improve survey questions that yield desired data types