North American DDI Conference

Training

DDI training sessions will be available following the conference on April 4, 2013. Registration and additional fee required. Registration for the workshops includes one morning and one afternoon workshop.

Morning Workshops (concurrent - 8 am - 11:30 am)

• DDI: Capturing metadata throughout the research process for preservation and discovery
  Watson Library, Clark Instruction Center
  Instructor: Wendy Thomas, Data Access Core Director
  Minnesota Population Center
  University of Minnesota
  
  DDI supports two development lines, DDI-Codebook (DDI-C) and DDI-Lifecycle (DDI-L). This workshop provides an overview of the uses of both DDI-C and DDI-L in capturing metadata during the research process and how it is used for preservation and discovery purposes. The focus is on the types of metadata covered by DDI, how they are structured, and how they are used across the data lifecycle. Differences between the two development lines will be highlighted including structural and coverage differences.
• DDI and Relational Databases
  Budig Instruction Lab
  Instructors: Alerk Amin,
  Senior Research Programmer, RAND Corporation
  and
  Ingo Barkow , Data Manager
  Educational Research Data Center
  DIPF - German Institute for International Educational Research
  
  

  Although the DDI standard is expressed in XML, many institutions have a requirement or preference to use relational databases (eg. Access, MySQL, Oracle, Postgres) in their applications. This may be because of integration with existing applications, expertise at the institute, or other reasons. This workshop will discuss how to model DDI in a relational database, and the pros/cons of using this approach for application development. Interoperability with other applications, including those based on XML databases, and long term management of applications (including support for multiple versions of DDI) will also be discussed. Prior knowledge of relational databases and SQL is recommended but not required.

• Lunch (both groups 11:30 am - 1 pm)

• We will be providing dining cards for workshop participants. We've reserved Alcove G in the Kansas Union dining area (Level 3) from 11:30 to 1 for those who wish to dine together.

Afternoon Workshops (concurrent 1:30 pm - 5 pm)

• DDI: Metadata to support collection processes, discovery, and comparability
  Watson Library, Clark Instruction Center
  Instructor: Wendy Thomas, Data Access Core Director
  Minnesota Population Center
  University of Minnesota
  
  DDI-Lifecycle (DDI-L) was designed to support processes and comparability all through the lifecycle of the data. The result is a standard based on planned reuse of metadata that describes the methodologies used, the processes of capturing, cleaning, and modifying data, and the various storage formats of the data itself. These structures enhance its value to the research process in terms of quality control and by supporting a "metadata driven research process". Discovery tools can leverage "reusable" metadata which supports comparability within and between data sets, capturing intended points of comparability within series and collections of data. This workshop will focus on the DDI content that support collection, discovery, and comparability: Questions, data collection instruments, variables, concepts, geography, grouping and comparison.
• Hands on DDI 3 with Colectica
  Budig Instruction Lab
  Instructors: Jeremy Iverson and Dan Smith
  Colectica
  
  Colectica is a platform for creating, documenting, managing, distributing, and discovering data. Colectica is built on open standards including DDI 3. This training course covers the following topics:
  • Introduction to Colectica, including the new Colectica for Excel
  • Introduction to DDI 3
  • Documenting concepts and general study design
  • Designing and documenting surveys
  • Creating and documenting data products
  • Ingesting existing resources
  • Publishing resources
  Attendees may bring their own sample data and metadata for the hands-on portion of the workshop.