Using Data Analysis Exercises to Teach Research in Sociology of Aging Online: An Examination of Student Satisfaction

The present study represents an evaluation of the implementation of the integration of the American Sociological Association's (ASA) Integrating Data Analysis Project into 2 online offerings of an undergraduate sociology of aging course. This program was developed in response to concerns that students did not understand the complex relationships between theory, research, and substantive topics within the discipline. The association's goal was to encourage curricular change in sociology. Then it was to share the experiences in sociology with other social science disciplines that might also benefit from introducing quantitative literacy components into their curricula. Results of the analysis reveal that, contrary to the beliefs of many, the students in these 2 courses found these modules to be beneficial in helping them to better understand the empirical nature of sociology. Many students even expressed an interest in participating in future research projects in sociology and/or other disciplines. We concluded that the students were not overly anxious about the quantitative literacy components of the course. Also, including online data analysis strategies using publicly available data and the complimentary software available at the sites offering these data represent cost and time-effective methods of introducing quantitative literacy into the aging studies classroom.