This course investigates the foundations of Natural Language Processing (NLP) as tool for analyzing natural language texts in the social sciences, thus providing an alternative to traditional ways of data generation through surveys. The course introduces general use cases for NLP, provides a guide to standard operations on text as well as their implementation in the Python-based Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) and introduces the text mining functionalities of the WEKA Machine Learning workbench. The theory part of the course worth one credit can be supplemented by an optional project part worth another credit point.

This course will present research conducted to increase our understanding of how data collection decisions affect survey errors. This is not a “how–to-do-it” course on data collection, but instead reviews the literature on survey design decisions and data quality in order to sensitize you to alternative design decisions and their impact on the data obtained from surveys.

This course examines how to embed experiments in surveys. It covers both the design of survey experiments and the analysis of the results.

The main focus of this course lies on the introduction to statistical models and estimators beyond linear regression useful to social and economic scientists. It provides an overview of generalized linear models (GLM) that encompass non-normal response distributions to model functions of the mean. GLMs thus relate the expected mean E(Y) of the dependent variable to the predictor variables via a specific link function. This link function permits the expected mean to be non-linearly related to the predictor variables. Examples for GLMs are the logistic regression, regressions for ordinal data, or regression models for count data. GLMs are generally estimated by use of maximum likelihood estimation. The course thus not only introduces GLMs but starts with an introduction to the principle of maximum likelihood estimation. A good understanding of the classical linear regression model is a prerequisite and required for the course.

The amount of data generated as a by-product in society is growing fast including data from satellites, sensors, transactions, social media and smartphones, just to name a few. Such data are often referred to as "big data", and can be used to create value in different areas such as health and crime prevention, commerce and fraud detection. Big Data are often used for prediction and classification tasks. Both of which can be tackled with machine learning techniques. In this course we explore how Big Data concepts, processes and methods can be used within the context of Survey Research. Throughout this course we will illustrate key concepts using specific survey research examples including tailored survey designs and nonresponse adjustments and evaluation.

Data is omnipresent in the contemporary world coming in different shapes and sized: from survey data to found data. In order to make use of such data through analysis it is necessary first to import and clean it. This is often one of the most time consuming and difficult parts of data analysis. In this course you will learn both the conceptual steps needed in preparing data for analysis as well as the practical skills to do this. The course will cover all the essential skills needed to prepare data be it survey data, administrative data or found data.

There is a growing demand to produce reliable estimates of various socio-economic and health characteristics at both national and sub-national levels. However, data availability at the sub-national (small area) level from a survey is often limited by cost and thus analysts must make the best possible use of all available information. The course will begin with a history of small-area estimation and different uses of small-area statistics in both public and private sectors. This course will provide an introduction to the main concepts and issues in small estimation and describes various approaches for estimating different small area parameters.

Social scientists and survey researchers are confronted with an increasing number of new data sources such as apps and sensors that often result in (para)data structures that are difficult to handle with traditional modeling methods. At the same time, advances in the field of machine learning (ML) have created an array of flexible methods and tools that can be used to tackle a variety of modeling problems. Against this background, this course discusses advanced ML concepts such as cross validation, class imbalance, Boosting and Stacking as well as key approaches for facilitating model tuning and performing feature selection. In this course we also introduce additional machine learning methods including Support Vector Machines, Extra-Trees and LASSO among others. The course aims to illustrate these concepts, methods and approaches from a social science perspective. Furthermore, the course covers techniques for extracting patterns from unstructured data as well as interpreting and presenting results from machine learning algorithms. Code examples will be provided using the statistical programming language R.

Large data, fast pace of production, and collaboration are hallmarks of the new data environment. In this context, researchers must have a good understanding of data workflows and they must ensure consistent and reproducible practices in order to collaborate and consistently produce insights. This course deals with some of these essential topics. We will discuss the main types of workflows in data and survey sciences and how tools such as GitHub can enhance collaboration and insure reproducibility. We will also discuss the use of reproducible documents such as Rmarkdown or Jupyter Notebooks before covering the best practices for working with online data sources. We will finish the course by discussing the use of dashboards and how to develop such a tool using R Shiny.

We will discuss the theoretical and empirical properties of the two basic variance estimation strategies, namely Taylor series (linear) approximation and replication methods (including BRR, jackknife, and bootstrap) as they apply to several types of complex sample designs. We will study both descriptive statistics, such as means, and analytic statistics, such as linear and logistic regression. We will contrast model-based and design-based inference, the latter used as the standard in this course. Students will learn to use at least one survey software package with real survey data.

This course is a statistical methods class combining hands-on applications and general review of the theory behind different approaches to sampling.

In this course, students will apply the core skills that they learned in the IPSDS program to address real-world problems. The course will provide experience with the steps involved in carrying out a data consulting project, such as discussing the problems to solve with a client, data handling, and communicating work in both written and oral forms. The project is completed in teams (3-4 students per team).

This course provides a brief overview of the basics of probability and statistics. Students will review basic probability concepts and probability distributions, the Central Limit Theorem and hypothesis testing, and linear and logistic regression. Throughout this course, students should develop and reinforce proper statistical intuition. This includes knowing how to identify a sample and a population and applying appropriate statistical methods such as hypothesis testing, as well being able to identify different types of data and using the proper methods for each type of data. By the end of the course, students should have a strong foundation in statistics with which they can start their graduate coursework.

This is an introductory course in sampling theory, presenting simple random sampling, sampling for proportions, estimation of sample size, sampling with varying probabilities of selection, stratification, systematic selection, cluster sampling, double sampling, and sequential sampling.

This course introduces the concepts of usability and usability testing and why they are needed for survey research. The course provides a theoretical model for understanding the respondent-survey interaction and then provides practical methods for incorporating iterative user-centered design and testing into the survey development process. The course provides techniques and examples for designing, planning, conducting and analyzing usability studies on web or mobile surveys.