Reliving the 2020 ICPSR Data Fair: Data in Real Life
28Presentations
1,000+ Live Attendees
70Countries Represented
53 Presenters
500+Institutions Represented
One Data Fair attendee told us, "You assembled an amazing diverse group of topics of high interest and importance and a very impressive lineup of speakers. This was infinitely better than many conferences where one has to pay high fees to register." Wow!
Another Summer Program is in the books, and what an experience it was!
When COVID-19 hit in March and we realized we would have to go online, no one understood at the time what exactly would be involved. It turned out that we needed to develop plans for 84 offerings, comprised of 12 lectures, 40 short workshops, and 32 four-week courses. It is always difficult to count the number of participants because so many sign up for multiple offerings. We know we had 841 individuals participating in the four-week sessions and 649 participating in the short workshops. While there is some overlap in those numbers, we are confident we had more than 1,000 individuals who participated in the program, a new enrollment record.
The staff did an amazing job in organizing the structure for conducting the program, but of course, we couldn’t hold a program without the excellent work of the instructional staff and the TAs. Many of them were teaching online for the first time, but this will hold them in good stead for their teaching this fall at their home institutions. Early returns from the course evaluations indicate the participants’ satisfaction with their efforts was very high.
We have started planning for next year, and the easy part was selecting the dates for the main 2021 program. The first session will be held from June 21-July 16, and the second session from July 19-August 13. It will take a careful review of this summer’s experience with an eye on how the country deals with the coronavirus before we decide on the mode of instruction, but we hope to be able to have in-person instruction in Ann Arbor with an option of remote access.
Mike Traugott, Director, ICPSR Summer Program
Editor's note: The ICPSR Summer Program has now decided that its 2021 mode of instruction will be online. This decision was made with consideration of the current public health information about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also, See the archive of ICPSR Bulletin Newsletters.
Special thanks to Shelly Petrinko, Scott Campbell, Anna Shelton, and Sarah Pearson. To contact the Bulletin Newsletter editor, email Dory Knight-Ingram.
