This graduate version of UCCSS is offered as a hybrid course. Students are expected to watch the video lectures, answer the intermittent video questions, do the online labs, and come to in-person meetings. The video lectures and online labs (all graded) are presented in these pages right here. Additionally, faculty from the Designated Emphasis on Computational Social Science https://css.ucdavis.edu/ will present their research in face-to-face meetings, on Wednesday 5:10 - 7:00 PM; Hoagland Hall 113. During November and December, students will work on a project of choice, like a research proposal, a database, code, or draft research paper.

 

In-Person Meeting Schedule

September 25: Martin Hilbert: Introduction

October 2: Colin Cameron: Machine Learning for Prediction and Causal Analysis

October 9: Mark Lubell: Social Networks

October 16: Fushing Hsieh: Unsupervised Machine Learning based Exploratory Data Analysis

October 23: Kenji Sagae: Computational Modeling of Natural Language

October 30: Seth Frey: APIs and web-science

November 6: Martin Hilbert: Social Computation

November 13: DE CSS Steering Committee: Project Idea Presentations

November 20: Jingwen Zhang: Online Network Experiments for Studying Behavior Changes

November 27: No class meeting: research time

December 4: Discussion of Research projects

 

Online Course Content

Digital technology has not only revolutionized society, but also the way we can study it. For one, studying the massive digital footprint behind left behind by human online interaction allows us to gain unprecedented insights into what society is and how it works. This includes its intricate social networks that had long been obscure. Computational power allows us to detect hidden patterns through analytical tools like machine learning and to natural language processing. Finally, computer simulations enable us to explore hypothetical situations that may not even exist in reality, but that we would like to exist: a better world.  Computational social science provides us with the tools to explore new scenarios in a way that is as intriguing as playing a video game, while at the same time grounding it into the empirical reality of the world around us. This course gives an introduction to some of the exciting possibilities of how to do research.

UCCSS (University of California Computational Social Science) is the first online course taught collectively by Professors from all 10 UC campuses (about UCCSS).

While no formal requisites are necessary to join this course, at the end you will web-scrape 'Big Data' from the web, execute a social network analysis ('SNA'), find hidden patterns with machine learning ('ML') and natural language processing ('NLP'), and create agent-based computer models ('ABM') to explore what might happen if we would change certain things in society.

 

Course Objectives

By the end of the course you will have:

• gained a comprehensive understanding of prevalent modern social science research methods;
• critically thought through the complexities of many pressing social science challenges;
• collected hands-on experience with several computational research tools;
• prepared yourself to better navigate in a world where the most valuable companies, the largest democratic elections, and your immediate social network are run by computational social science.

 

Office Hours and class interaction:

• For content questions: use Piazza (see navigation bar). Sign up and don't miss the ongoing class conversation!
  
• Regular "Announcements" are made (see navigation bar), incl. video messages. Make sure not to block them in your inbox.
• Please feel free to create or join a study group. You can coordinate here: Study Group coordination

 

Evaluation

Final grades are based on a 100-point system as follows:

Grade Component	Points	Weight
Video Questions	80	8%
Labs	270	27%
Attendance in-person	100	10%
Project Presentation	200	20%
Final Project	350	35%
TOTAL	1000	100%

 

Academic Integrity 

Cheating, plagiarism, and other misconduct are serious violations of your contract as a student. This includes purposeful support of such behavior. Please make sure you are familiar with them: http://sja.ucdavis.edu/scs.html . Ignorance is not an acceptable excuse.

As in any good online social network: inappropriate online behavior will be penalized (within the class and/or through official university channels). This protects the rights of everybody involved. So please watch your words and be a respectful cyber-discussant. Please let us know if you feel there is inappropriate behavior of anybody in our online discussions.

Please make sure that you understand and avoid PLAGIARISM. We do check with plagiarism software and regularly report misconduct to Student Judicial Affairs ( http://sja.ucdavis.edu/scs.html ).

Avoid Plagiarism (1:50min)

Plagiarism, Quoting & Paraphrasing (4:25min)

 

 

Interactive Video Questions (8 %) and Labs (27 %) = 35 % 

Interactive assignments allow you to quickly build a strong base for your grade in this course (35%). In other words, not doing them, won't allow you to obtain more than a D (in the best case). 

Intermittent/interactive video lecture questions represent 80 points in total (usually some 10 points per session), equal to 8% of the final grade (or everything above an A-). You only have one attempt to answer them. Points will be transferred when you reach the end of the video (make sure they transfer, see below).

Points for interactive labs have different weights. The insights you gain while working through them accumulate constantly, building up to a final integrative lab exercise (session 9) and the exams. Therefore, do NOT skip them: you will need them eventually anyways.

Assignments are usually due Wednesday & Sundays at 8:59pm Pacific Time and have to be registered before the indicated deadline. Late submissions are still welcome. You accumulatively lose 15 % of the points for each late day for the first three late days. After that, you can maximally receive 50 % of the points when submitting until the deadline of the session 9 assignment ("Integrative Lab"). If you are traveling, Canvas might adjust due dates according to other time zones (i.e. on mobile devices), so remember that due dates are always 8:59pm California time PST (to adjust time zone see guide here).

 

Final Project: Presentation (20 %) and Paper (35 %) = 55 % 

The online part of this hybrid course ends after the 5th week of the Quarter, which leaves 6 weeks for hands-on research. There is not one single prescribed format for the final project, but its focus needs to be on CSS methods. It can consists of a new research proposal (with a very detailed outline of methods and data), the collection and description of a new data source, additional analysis to an existing study (make sure to be very transparent about what is old/new), the writing of code to automate some research task (machine learning, or API workflow), or the writing of a stand-alone paper. Most papers will collect a new data source and do an exploratory analysis with it, or write an exploratory simulation model. The labs of the online course provide everyone with a minimum of skills to use diverse computational social science tools and methods, including web-scraping, SNA, NLP, and ABM. Your are not required to use any of these in their final project, but are welcome to do so (if you prefer to obtain new data through an API, or do machine learning in Python, please go ahead!). If you are part of the DE, please make sure that the work is coordinated with your CSS DE representative. Your DE representative will co-evaluate your final research project, so please meet beforehand and coordinate closely. 

Note that in week 8 we meet in-person to talk about project ideas. Since we are a large class, we prepare for this by sharing online presentations of the ideas beforehand. This will be graded: Project Presentation

 

FAQs (important: please read!)

1. Will there be tasks and questions that require any extra programming skills and background in math or statistics? Answer: No, no prerequisites required. If you pay attention, interact with the content (take notes and do the assignments), and watch the lectures (successful students watch them more than once), there is absolutely no reason why not to achieve an A+. You got a high school degree and made it here, you can do it.
2. Are the intermittent questions in the video lectures graded? Answer: Yes. They are worth almost one entire letter grade (8%). Exams will include questions that you are unlikely to answer correctly if you haven't actively watched the lectures and taken the intermittent questions seriously. Not doing them right, will hurt your grade twice. If you got one wrong, go back immediately and re-watch that segment. Understand what they are about.
3. How do I know if I got an intermittent video question wrong/right in PlayPosit?  Answer: If you marked a question correctly it turns green (or stays white for correctly not marking it). Wrong answers turn yellow/redish. "Check all that apply" questions are graded all or nothing (!)
4. The PlayPosit interface shows that I got points on the questions, but it doesn't show up in Canvas? Something went wrong with the sync process (maybe an internet connection problem...). The player always tries to sync grades AFTER reaching the end of the video. If that effort fails, then the Sync Grades button should show up. You can refresh the page and open up the Review tab again to click on the newly re-enabled Sync Grades button. Please ALWAYS CHECK at the end of your Session if all grades got synced. It is always your responsibility (here and elsewhere) to check if the tech you are using also worked.
5. Do I need to take notes? What do you think of using Google docs and online helps like crowd-sourced study guides for the course content? Answer: I'm a big fan of Study Groups and being a scholar of digital communication, I also know that online collaboration can be very productive. However, experience shows that only those students take something away from these classes if they actively do the assignments and take their own notes. This is because it is not the study notes, but the interactive process of preparing notes that makes the difference! That's also why manual beats computer notes! All of this being said, I think it is a great idea to join forces (in personal meetings or through online collaboration) to identify gaps in your understanding and answer questions. Our common enemy is the lack of understanding. So join forces, please!  However, remember that any collaboration is highly counterproductive when you start depending on it.
6. The videos are lagging, what can I do? Answer: By default, streaming is set to a full HD version and depending on the network connection/bandwidth, you may experience the lagging/pausing. You can adjust video quality from the scrub bar (<HD>) or adjust the video course (more here) as that should help. You can also watch the videos (without questions) here at AggieVideo (you have to log in).
7. We are required to upload videos for some assignments, but mine won't upload? Answer: Shortly before the assignment deadline, we collectively  overload the server sometimes. This is a real risk for any digital work, please prepare for it. If you do not want to run the risk of getting the first-day 15% late-discount, please make sure to finish your assignment before Sunday afternoon. This also gives you wiggle-room in case of any other technological problem, and you have to expect technological problems when doing computational social science.
8. What is "Piazza" and why do I need it? Answer: Our ongoing class discussions happen in Piazza. Just like it sometimes useful for you to listen in when others ask questions in class (and sometimes not), most students find it useful to follow along in these discussions. But just like with most apps, you can regulate the frequency these notifications get send to your email inbox. You have to sign up for Piazza: it is an add-on app to our main platform Canvas. Be aware that "if you choose to opt-in to Piazza Careers (a separate service they offer), you consent to the release of information included in your user profile, which may include education records, to companies that participate in Piazza Careers and to other users who have opted into Piazza Careers". We will NOT use and NOT need Piazza Careers and I do not promote it.
9. What communications / messages should I get in order to be on top of what's going on? Answer: Through Canvas (our main platform) you will get one Welcome email from the instructor per Session and sometimes general feedback for assignments from TAs. These are IMPORTANT! Make sure you have your Canvas notifications settings TURNED ON!

 

 

About the course coordinator:

Before joining UC Davis, Prof. Hilbert created and led the Information Society Program of the United Nations Secretariat for Latin America and the Caribbean. This program aims at fostering the impact of digital technologies. In his 15 years as United Nations Economic Affairs Officer he has provided hands-on technical assistance in the field of digital development to Presidents, government experts, legislators, diplomats, NGOs, and companies in over 20 countries. Policy makers from the highest political levels have officially recognized the impact of his projects. He retired early from his life-long appointment with the UN, because he wanted to be an active part of the exciting process of making use of these same digital technologies to better understand society. He joined the University of California in 2014 to be able to dedicate more time and energy to "Computational Social Science". He regularly still does consulting work for the UN and other private and public clients, applying new CSS methods in practice.

He has written five books about digital technology for international development and has published in academic journals in the fields of communication, economic development, information science, psychology, ecology and evolution, political science, complex systems, women’s studies, and forecasting. His findings have been featured in popular outlets like Scientific American, PBS, Discovery, NatGeo, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Economist, NPR, BBC, Die Welt, Correio Braziliense, ElMundo, among others. International perspectives are no mere theory for Prof. Hilbert, as he speaks five languages and has traveled to over 70 countries. More: http://www.martinhilbert.net