During the last decade there has been a strong development towards the open data from surveys, promoted by the Research Data Alliance (RDA), Open Data Charter, and other initiatives. Opening survey data for public use allows transparency, accessibility, and comparability of the data. The survey programs, funded by national and international research projects, open their data archives for public use. 
In this micromodule you will obtain the following skills and competencies: finding survey data, understanding representativeness, using open access databases, identifying main survey elements, and evaluating margins of error.
During the micromodule, you will have hands-on experience with such open access survey data as the European Social Survey and the World Values Survey. 
This micromodule will also introduce and use the resources from global research organisations such as Gallup Polls and PEW Research Centre. These open access databases and resources will provide the solid starting point for the self-directed research or analytical work with survey data for the learners of the micromodule.

At the end of the micromodule you will be able:
1.    To use open access databases for finding and retrieving survey data;
2.    To critically evaluate the quality of surveys and data reporting.