All these courses are as interactive as possible. The courses use the principles of action learning: that people learn by trying out new things, not by listening to lectures. The ideal number of participants in one of our courses is about 15. With much larger or smaller numbers, the structure and pacing of the course usually need to change a litle. Courses with 20 or more participants either take longer, or can't cover as much, because different participants tend to begin at different levels.
These courses mostly use a one-hour cycle. In each hour a concept is explained, and some examples are given. Participants, mostly working in small groups of 3 or 4, try out the new concept, and are given instant feedback on their performance.
Our courses are practically oriented: the assumption is that the organization/s sponsoring the course are about to do some research, evaluation, marketing, or planning. Audience Dialogue trains the staff involved, and can stay on to help with the more complex aspects.
So the output from these courses is not only trained staff: it's trained staff plus a communication tool - which can be a survey, a qualitative study, a web site, a marketing plan, or a scenario plan.
When a course is finished, we keep in contact with participants, answering their questions, usually by email, fax, or telephone. This website serves as a reference resource for past participants. Though everybody can read this website, it makes more sense if you've done one of our courses.
We can do these courses anywhere in the world. We are highly experienced at running courses through interpreters. Our training materials are currently available in Vietnamese, Indonesian, Lao, Khmer, and Arabic, as well as English.
Late 2006: We are preparing to run courses online, to cater for people who want to study audience research, but are not near an institution that offers these courses. General information about our online courses.
Update, May 2008: We are presently reviewing our capacity to deliver the training courses described below. There is a definite capacity to provide Courses 5 and 6, and customised versions of internet courses can be developed to suit different audiences and needs. Please advise what you think you might need and we'll try to develop a solution for you. I envisage that courses/materials will primarily be offered online as was the intention in 2006.
| Course 1 | Basic audience surveys | 1 week (in person), 10 weeks (online) |
| Course 2 | Analysing survey data | 1 week |
| Course 3 | Qualitative audience research | 1 week |
| Course 4 | Comprehensive audience research | 2 weeks |
| Course 5 | Website design and management | 1 week |
| Course 6 | Internet marketing | 1 week |
| Course 7 | Participative marketing for radio | 1 week |
| Course 8 | Futures research and scenario planning | 1 week |
We can also run introductory courses on any of these topics (anything from half a day to 3 days) - but with these shorter courses there's no time to produce research data, marketing plans, etc.
| Session | Topic |
| 1 | Introductions Purpose of audience research Types of research Strategy and uses of research |
| 2 | Questionnaire design principles Using program theory to select questions Questionnaire structure Question sequence |
| 3 | Question wording Answer types The design process Questionnaire design: practice session Questionnaire layout |
| 4 | Basics of fieldwork and interviewing Finding respondents Making the interview Recording the interview Interview practice (recorded and played back) Survey control paperwork |
| --- questionnaires printed overnight --- | |
| 5 | First fieldwork trial (half-day) |
| 6 | Review of fieldwork trial Checking and editing completed questionnaires Coding open-ended questions Data cleaning and logic checks Getting things done; time management Interviewer payment methods Economics and costing of surveys |
| 7 | Introduction to sample design Principles of sampling. Who to include Random selection Choosing a sample size Unit of selection< BR>Importance of response rate Examples of good and bad samples Practical sample design exercise Block sampling Clustering and skip intervals Avoiding biased samples |
| 8 | Create finalquestionnaire and sample design |
| --- questionnaires and logs printed overnight --- | |
| 9 | 2nd fieldwork trial (half day) |
| 10 | Review 2nd fieldwork trial Summary of tasks required for a survey. |
Course duration = 1 week: 10 sessions, each 3-4 hours
| Session | Topic |
| 1 | Basic principles of survey analysis |
| 2 | Software choices and manual analysis: which to use, when |
| 3 | Introduction to the software (generally Epi Info, Epidata, Excel, and/or SPSS) |
| 4 | Frequency analysis and data cleaning |
| 5 | Cross-tabulation and significance testing |
| 6 | Correlation, association, and regression analysis |
| 7 | Presenting data clearly; graphical options |
| 8 | Reporting |
| 9 | Analysing qualitative data and open-ended questions |
| 10 | Applying research data to practical use |
The best time to do this course is when you've just finished a survey or research study, and need to make sense of the data, We often run our Basic Audience Research course to train people in how to do a survey. They then organize the survey, and we return a month or two later for this follow-up course. When you have real data, and a real need to use it, a course like this (which might otherwise seem rather dry and theoretical) becomes very interesting and relevant. Session 6 (on correlation, etc.) is sometimes not needed - in which case sessions 4 and 5 are normally extended.
Duration 1 week: 10 half-day sessions, each 3-4 hours, plus one evening group.
Alternative: main focus on consensus groups, with a completed set of 3 groups.
| Session | Topic |
| 1 | Introduction to qualitative research |
| 2 | Depth interviewing Designing an interview guide |
| 3 | Planning a sample Recording the interviews |
| 4 | Trial interviews (fieldwork) Discussion of findings |
| 5 | Consensus groups Drawing a maximum-diversity sample Getting participants Organizing venues --- find participants for tonight --- |
| 6 | Making an agenda Managing the group Recording the findings An actual consensus group (evening) |
| 7 | Review consensus group findings Introduction to the co-discovery conference Principles of co-discovery -- find participants for tomorrow --- |
| 8 | How to run a co-discovery conference Trial session with participants Review of trial session Managing the paperwork and results |
| 9 | Co-discovery conference (half-day) |
| 10 | Putting it all together Which method is best, in which circumstances Analysing and using the findings |
2 weeks: 20 sessions, each 3-4 hours
Output: a complete set of consensus groups, a final questionnaire, sample design, and fieldwork plan, ready for a full survey.
This is a combination of the 3 above courses, eliminating some more specialized topics, to fit the course into 20 sessions:
| Session | Topic |
| 1-6 | Basic audience research |
| 7-12 | Qualitative research - focusing on consensus groups |
| 13-20 | Analysing and using research data |
Output: usually a small survey and some qualitative research.
Course duration = 1 week: 10 sessions, each 3-4 hours
| Session | Topic |
| 1 | How websites work |
| 2 | Review of existing websites and their problems |
| 3 | Usability issues |
| 4 | Information architecture and navigation design |
| 5 | Introduction to HTML |
| 6 | Using a word-processor-style HTML editor |
| 7 | Introduction to other web software: graphics, scripting, etc. |
| 8 | Web site hosting, uploading, and naming |
| 9 | Marketing the website: search engines, links, email promotion |
| 10 | Evaluating the site - feedback, site logs, and online surveys |
Output: a working website
Course duration = 1 week: 10 sessions, each 3-4 hours
| Session | Topic |
| 1 | How the internet works: the Web, email, and e-commerce |
| 2 | How people use the internet, and the relevance of this knowledge for marketing |
| 3 | Using search engines, directories, and portals |
| 4 | Gathering data about your visitors: online market research |
| 5 | Response-based marketing: relationships, networks, one-to-one |
| 6 | Usability and effectiveness in websites |
| 7 | Cross-promotion of websites using other media |
| 8 | Email marketing - techniques and constraints |
| 9 | Balancing privacy, security, and user trust |
| 10 | Building an internet marketing plan |
Output: a detailed internet marketing plan - much of which can be accomplished during the course.
Course duration = 1 week: 10 sessions, each 3-4 hours
| Session | Topic |
| 1 | Principles of modern marketing, and how they can be applied to radio; the three-legged model |
| 2 | Understanding and using audience research data |
| 3 | Marketing through programming |
| 4 | Program theory and external funding |
| 5 | Publicity for stations and programs |
| 6 | Helping both advertisers and listeners achieve their objectives |
| 7 | Planning and scheduling radio advertising |
| 8 | Funding from listeners |
| 9 | How radio can best use the Internet |
| 10 | Developing a radio marketing plan |
This course is largely based on the book Participative Marketing for Local Radio, by Dennis List (founder of Audience Dialogue). Participants in this course all get a copy of the book, and work through a series of exercises to gain an understanding of all the possibilities in radio marketing. If the course is being done for a station that does not have some possibilities open to it (e.g. a non-commercial station) those sections of the course can be replaced by others that are more relevant.
Output: detailed radio marketing plans, both for the station (and/or network) as a whole, and for the people and departments involved in the course.
Course duration = 1 week: 10 sessions, each 3-4 hours
| Session | Topic |
| 1 | Introduction to futures research thinking |
| 2 | Strategic planning and futures studies |
| 3 | Environmental scanning: monitoring emerging trends |
| 4 | Enhancing creativity; freedom from unconscious assumptions |
| 5 | Idea generation and visualization |
| 6 | Principles of scenario building |
| 7 | Drivers of the future: events, motives, values, and worldview |
| 8 | Impinging systems and stakeholder scenarios |
| 9 | Systems thinking and its use in planning |
| 10 | How to use scenarios |
Output from this course:
(a) A detailed set of medium-term scenarios for the organization and its environment.
(b) Greater awareness and knowledge of the future, and the ability of the organization to deal with it successfully.
For organizations with a more technological orientation, some of the above sessions can be replaced with sessions on technology diffusion, cross-impact analysis, and the Delphi method.
For further details of these (and similar) courses, please email us.