Ron Anderson & Consulting

Since 1967 I have consulted for over 40 different organizations (companies, government agencies, and nonprofits). My predominant roles were as software designer-developer; as expert sociologist; as survey researcher; and as trainer in instructional methods and information technology.

Since 2000 my consulting has concentrated in five areas:

1. Prison projections and sentencing simulation. This work has been for the Minnesota Department of Corrections and the North Carolina Sentencing Commission. For these agencies I design software modifications to facilitate their changes in procedures for handling and sentencing offenders.

Here is a link to the latest SSS program, zip file.

2. Advising on educational research, especially with regard to the role of IT in instruction. The clients include: American Institutes for Research, the United States Department of Education, and the Research Grants Council, Hong Kong, all of whom I serve as a paid reviewer for research proposals.

3. International Projects. I have provided technical assistance with several international organizations. One was as a consultant for the Australian Center for Educational Research helping them on the OECD PISA project. In 2004 I spent two weeks working with the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science & Technology, Bangkok, Thailand reviewing their IT-related projects and research needs. I also worked with SRI International on a National Science Foundation Project to develop performance assessment tasks in ICT-based skills.

4. Expert Witness. From 2003 to 2005 I served as an expert witness for Mahoney & Foster, Ltd on an advertising fraud legal case. My role was to conduct a survey of consumers of deer hunting products and to serve as an expert witness critiquing the research quality of other surveys conducted.

6. Survey Research Expert. Since 2005 I have been assisting the IEA SITES 2006 project designing and implementing surveys of school principals, tech coordinators and teachers in over 20 countries. In 2007 I advised Rainbow Research, Minneapolis, MN on the measurement of reliability and validity in survey-based evaluations of community projects and community organizations.

Capabilities Summary . It should be obvious from the biographical summary above that Professor Anderson has an unusual variety of experience in social research, including both statistical and qualitative studies. Most of his teaching has been in this general area as well. He is skilled in applying these methods in practical settings, especially evaluation research and impact assessments. He has conducted many user satisfaction surveys including random samples of faculty and students on their IT support for instruction. He has worked with general as well as special populations such as students on American Indian reservations, math/science teachers in Thailand , and educational researchers in Singapore .

Anderson has considerable experience in building computer applications as well as assessing their impact. He developed computer simulation models for prison population projections and has designed simulation models for instruction. He has coordinated the development and testing of nearly 50 computer-based course modules or short courses.

Professor Anderson is an active member of the American Educational Research Association and the American Evaluation Association. His evaluation projects have included courses, software, practices, curricula, projects, instructional programs, institutional programs, and grant programs. A variety of methods were used in these evaluations.

Ron Anderson can be contact by clicking on this email address: rea@umn.edu

To contact him by phone or mail, see the homepage.

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