Spring 2023
INF 385T Special Topics in Information Science: Computational Social Science Methods
Cross-listing of P A 397C, hosted by the LBJ School of Public Affairs.
DESCRIPTION
Academic and research oriented introduction to computational methods from a social science research design perspective.
COURSE NOTES
This course introduces computational social science methods and contextualizes these methods within social science research design. The first part of this course (w1–w3) gives you an overview of this course, programming fundamentals, and how to use high-performance cloud computing resources. The second part (w4–w12) is analysis-oriented and primarily covers text analysis (w4–w8; with an emphasis on multilingual language analysis) and network analysis (w9–w12). The last few weeks focus on research design with computational methods and the final project. Bilingual or multilingual language ability is a plus. Programming is an essential part of this course but not the purpose and will not be taught. We will be coding for social good. The course has demanding prerequisites; therefore, you probably need to work on the prerequisites in 2022 summer and fall if you are highly motivated. All registrations need to be approved by the instructor in late 2022 fall. You can join the learning group where more learning resources will be shared.
PREREQUISITES
Graduate standing.
RESTRICTIONS
Students must obtain prior consent from the instructor before registering for this class.