Online Course
Computational Social Science Capstone Project
- Provider Coursera
- Cost Free Online Course (Audit)
- Session In progress
- Language English
- Certificate Paid Certificate Available
- Effort 2-5 hours a week
- Duration 4 weeks long
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Overview
Class Central Tips
CONGRATULATIONS! Not only did you accomplish to finish our intellectual tour de force, but, by now, you also already have all required skills to execute a comprehensive multi-method workflow of computational social science. We will put these skills to work in this final integrative lab, where we are bringing it all together. We scrape data from a social media site (drawing on the skills obtained in the 1st course of this specialization). We then analyze the collected data by visualizing the resulting networks (building on the skills obtained in the 3rd course). We analyze some key aspects of it in depth, using machine learning powered natural language processing (putting to work the insights obtained during the 2nd course). Finally, we use a computer simulation model to explore possible generative mechanism and scrutinize aspects that we did not find in our empirical reality, but that help us to improve this aspect of society (drawing on the skills obtained during the 4th course of this specialization). The result is the first glimpse at a new way of doing social science in a digital age: computational social science. Congratulations! Having done all of this yourself, you can consider yourself a fledgling computational social scientist!
Syllabus
Getting Started and Milestone 1
-For this milestone, you will again web scrape videos from two YouTube channels. You will be assigned two channels to scrape. In contrast to the previous version of this exercise, you will NOT scrape the featured videos of the specified news channel, but the search results of the name of the news channel in combination with your name.
Milestone 2: Social Network Analysis
-In this milestone, you will analyze a social network with help of the software Gephi.
Milestone 3: Natural Language Processing
-In this milestone of our Integrative Lab, you will select two of the key videos identified with help of our SNA, and analyze the sentiment and emotions contained in the comment sections of the videos. We use NLP from IBM Watson for this.
Milestone 4: Agent-Based Computer Simulations
-In this milestone, you will take all the data you created in the previous milestones and use a two-step flow model and discover how ideas can diffuse into society. Through this exercise you will grow your own artificial society from the bottom-up.
-For this milestone, you will again web scrape videos from two YouTube channels. You will be assigned two channels to scrape. In contrast to the previous version of this exercise, you will NOT scrape the featured videos of the specified news channel, but the search results of the name of the news channel in combination with your name.
Milestone 2: Social Network Analysis
-In this milestone, you will analyze a social network with help of the software Gephi.
Milestone 3: Natural Language Processing
-In this milestone of our Integrative Lab, you will select two of the key videos identified with help of our SNA, and analyze the sentiment and emotions contained in the comment sections of the videos. We use NLP from IBM Watson for this.
Milestone 4: Agent-Based Computer Simulations
-In this milestone, you will take all the data you created in the previous milestones and use a two-step flow model and discover how ideas can diffuse into society. Through this exercise you will grow your own artificial society from the bottom-up.
Taught by
Martin Hilbert
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
I think this course was amazing due to different things:
Methodology: it was very interesting for me to work under the proposed scientific method. I also enjoyed learning how Computational Social Science defines a methodology for creating new knowledge. I think it is clear and very useful not only for...
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
This final project portion was definitely my favorite course on coursera. With everything that we have learned throughout the course, I was able to use literally every aspect from web-scraping, social networks, and simulations to produce something that I will be able to use outside of school and beyond. It truly is the introduction to computational social science and overall very easy to follow!
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
Great way to bring together all of the previous courses into one interactive lab involving analyzing social networks and building my own, personal artificial society. This project is not intimidating in the slightest, it is actually quite fun. I had never previously coded before, and the coding was easy to follow and replicate. Overall, I am very pleased that I took this course!
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
This course is considered to be the final project to apply all of the previous concepts learned from the previous courses in the Computational Social Science class in Coursera. This is a final test to use all of the skills learned and see how you can apply it in a real life situation.
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
I found the final project to be a good way to integrate all of the course concepts we covered into one cohesive assignment.
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
I was amazed at how much I had learned and was able to do while I worked through these videos. You really do come a long way, and best of all, it is a fun journey. This course definitely helped me build some confidence with coding, social network analysis and more.
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
There were some great tasks with a lot of practical significance. Took this course after finishing the previous courses of the specialization, and it really summed up all the hands on work that was done in all the former courses of the specialization.
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
Thank you very much for putting up a very good course. I have learned a lot. Makes me appreciate how hard it is to do social science but it is also very rewarding. :-)
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
Thank you for the course!!! Really great job!!! After Capstone Project I have plan to make some researches in sphere of political communication.
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
Very informative course that I believe will be helpful in my later studies. It would be good attempt to add up new methods to academic inquiry.
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