Michael Ybarra

Hometown & State: Ann Arbor, MI by way of Irvine, CA

Education:

Teaching Experience:
What types of courses & students have you taught? What do you enjoy about teaching?

I have taught statistics courses for both undergraduates and graduates in the Sociology department and have also taught research methods in Communication Studies. Although it is challenging to teach these courses, I enjoy trying to make the courses as understandable as possible. Normally instructors hope for reactions like "This was a great class," or "This course really made me think," but when teaching statistics I am hoping for "It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be."

Career/Research/Other Interests:
What do you want to do when you grow up? What professional or personal/social things do you enjoy?

I like doing things that combine teaching, planning, tinkering, and sports. My wife and I have four children actively involved in sports. This combination has led me into a life as a club "travel" soccer coach for the past eight years. This lifestyle has allowed our family to see much of Michigan and several nearby states on our way to and from tournaments. It keeps us busy year round.

Interest in the OLC:
What intrigued you about working on the OLC? Why have you signed up to develop DDLGs?

I really like the idea behind the OLC and the DDLGs. There have been times as an instructor in the classroom that I would have liked to have been able to utilize something like these guides in order to better illustrate a point that I was hoping to make in a discussion or lab section. I am hopeful that my background as an instructor will inform the guides that I contribute to developing.

Explaining DDLGs:
If you were explaining DDLGs to a friend or colleague, how would you describe them? What would you say their role is/could be for instructors and their courses? What are their benefits? How would you explain what you're developing?

The guides are meant to be instructional aids that can be utilized in introductory level social science courses. The ambition is to expose the students to both social science concepts and quantitative methods. Of course, textbooks can provide much of the same information however the online learning guides allow students and instructors to have a more interactive experience of the material being presented. Hopefully, the guides will allow students to gain a better understanding of tables and graphs that are presented in and by various media, but to also try to start thinking about what the numbers may actually mean and the research process that led to the presented material.

Learning/Experience from DDLG Development:
Was there anything you learned or anything that surprised you during development of content for the DDLGs (perhaps related to teaching, the OLC, ICPSR, etc.)? Do you have plans to use DDLGs in courses you may teach in the future? Has the experience been a rewarding one – if so, in what way?

The biggest lesson I learned was that some datasets can often be used for research purposes other than that for which they may have explicitly been designed. This has been extremely helpful because sometimes fitting some sociological concepts to the datasets can be challenging, especially for concepts that may not typically be measured quantitatively.

I would welcome the opportunity to use DDLGs in courses that I may teach in the future. I hope that the guides that I help develop will be used by instructors and students and I hope that even though the material is primarily introductory level, someone will be led to additional research ideas. This helps to keep me focused on the ongoing challenge of writing what needs to be written as concisely as possible without sacrificing anything necessary for the instruction.

We have a good group of developers working together on the guides this summer which has definitely been a plus and it means that no guide is a completely solo project. Due to my background and affinity for team sports, I believe that the best and lasting accomplishments are achieved by teams, so it is always rewarding when people are willing to work together.