{"id":8791,"date":"2021-10-05T11:59:09","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T16:59:09","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-04-23T23:56:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T03:56:32","slug":"want-to-better-understand-how-surveys-work-weve-got-an-email-course-for-you","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2021\/10\/05\/want-to-better-understand-how-surveys-work-weve-got-an-email-course-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Want to better understand how surveys work? We\u2019ve got an email course for you"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sometimes it seems like public opinion polls are all around us, especially \u2013 but not only \u2013 in election years. If you\u2019ve wondered what opinion polls are for, how they are done or how to tell a good one from a bad one, we\u2019ve come up with some answers for you. Sign up for Pew Research Center\u2019s five-lesson email mini-course<\/a> about polling and you\u2019ll receive a short lesson from us every few days, over the course of a couple of weeks. As with all our work, it\u2019s completely free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We conduct lots of opinion polls here at the Center. We also do research on how to improve <\/em>polling. We\u2019ve tried to distill all this knowledge into short, easy-to-digest lessons that we hope will answer your questions about the subject. There\u2019s even a quiz at the end so you can see what you\u2019ve learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Try our email course on polling<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Want to know more about polling? Take your knowledge to the next level with a short email mini-course from Pew Research Center. Sign up now!<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Each email lesson will address a different topic about polling: What are polls, and why are they done? What kinds of subjects do polls cover? How are polls conducted, and how has that changed over time? Why did polls hit a rough patch in the 2016 and 2020 elections, and what\u2019s being done to help the industry deal with its challenges? And \u2013 maybe most importantly \u2013 how can you<\/em> become a savvier consumer of opinion polls? We want our lessons to be easy to understand, so we\u2019ve written them in a straightforward, friendly way. But if you want to learn more, we\u2019ve included links to more detailed articles and videos about many aspects of polling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can sign up to take the polling mini-course here<\/a>. If you like it, you may want to check out our other e-mail courses, which address immigration<\/a>, Muslims<\/a> and the U.S. census<\/a>. We hope you get a lot out of our lessons, and please tell us what you think by emailing us at minicourses@pewresearch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve wondered what opinion polls are for, how they are done or how to tell a good one from a bad one, sign up for our email mini-course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":584,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2021-10-11T12:40:53Z","apple_news_api_id":"48ebeab0-24b8-4753-9e7b-7a0d06c8c0a8","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2021-10-11T12:40:53Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ASOvqsCS4R1Oee3oNBsjAqA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[401,357],"bylines":[967],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[528],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-8791","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-survey-basics","category-survey-methods","bylines-scott-keeter","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-methods"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":353,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2021\/10\/05\/want-to-better-understand-how-surveys-work-weve-got-an-email-course-for-you\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":14613,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/10\/PM_21.09.22_pollingMiniCourse_featured.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/10\/PM_21.09.22_pollingMiniCourse_featured.png?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":14613,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/10\/PM_21.09.22_pollingMiniCourse_featured.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/10\/PM_21.09.22_pollingMiniCourse_featured.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":14613,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/10\/PM_21.09.22_pollingMiniCourse_featured.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/10\/PM_21.09.22_pollingMiniCourse_featured.png?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":14613,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/10\/PM_21.09.22_pollingMiniCourse_featured.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/10\/PM_21.09.22_pollingMiniCourse_featured.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":14613,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/10\/PM_21.09.22_pollingMiniCourse_featured.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/10\/PM_21.09.22_pollingMiniCourse_featured.png?w=720&h=405&crop=1","width":720,"height":405,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":14613,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/10\/PM_21.09.22_pollingMiniCourse_featured.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/10\/PM_21.09.22_pollingMiniCourse_featured.png?w=1200&h=628&crop=1","width":1200,"height":628,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Learn about polling with our email course","description":"If you\u2019ve wondered what opinion polls are for, how they are done or how to tell a good one from a bad one, sign up for our email mini-course.","og_title":"Want to better understand how surveys work? 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