Research Methods for the Online World

Date:

24/08/2015 - 28/08/2015

Organised by:

London School of Economics

Presenter:

Dr Giuseppe Veltri

Level:

Entry (no or almost no prior knowledge)

Contact:

Tyrone Curtis, Programme Coordinator
+44 (0)20 7955 6422
summer.methods@lse.ac.uk

Map:

View in Google Maps  (WC2A 2AE)

Venue:

Houghton Street
London

Description:

Research Methods for the Online World

Research Methods for the Online World offers a unique overview of research methods developed to analyse online media and data. It discusses both methods to research about and through the Internet, and will explore the rationale by which useful information can be extracted from social media and online sources. Particular emphasis will be given to native techniques for digital media such as opinion and social media mining, online communication and social networks, and "big data" analytics.

Who is this course aimed at?
This course may be of interest to:

  • researchers and scholars with a social science background interested in online research
  • professionals interested in carrying out or interpreting consumer and market research online
  • NGOs activists interested in using online data to study and promote social change.

Course benefits
On completion of the course, participants will have:

  • a firm grasp of the similarities and differences between conducting online research and offline research
  • the ability to assess the use of online media data using quantitative data for social science inspired research
  • an understanding of opinion mining and its core principles and techniques 
  • the ability to combine qualitative and quantitative methods - mixed methods - to analyse online media data
  • an understanding of the basic concepts of networks and their role and measurement in the context of social media data.

Prerequisites
A good understanding of basic statistics (descriptive and inferential), and a basic familiarity with the principles of social scientific research and its methods.

Course outline
Research Methods for the Online World aims at providing an understanding of the main research methods that are specific to online media data and to analysing social and communication processes. This course offers a unique overview of research methods developed to analyse media and online data with an emphasis on ’big data’ sources such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. It also presents an overview of cutting edge qualitative and quantitative methods developed to carry out online social research with an emphasis on the latter. Starting from qualitative methods, participants will be introduced to an array of quantitative online methods. Web surveys, online experiments, and in particular recent social data and opinion mining techniques and social network analysis will be deployed as means to analyse cultural, social and political phenomena. Such techniques have a wide range of applications in social scientific research as well as in business intelligence.

This course is aimed at postgraduate students interested in conducting social research online and to professionals who want to understand how online data can be used as an alternative to or in combination with traditional consumer research methods.

A combination of lectures and seminars will provide both the theoretical underpinnings of each methodology and a practical hands-on session in which participants can familiarise themselves with some of the tools used in this kind of research.

This course will consist of five two-hour lectures each morning and five two-hour classes each afternoon.

This course is offered as part of the LSE Methods Summer Programme, a summer school of intensive short courses in social science research methods for students, researchers and professionals. A number of social events will be held throughout the programme. Participants will be provided with a transcript and certificate upon completion of the course. For more information on the Methods Summer Programme, please visit our website at lse.ac.uk/methods. 

Cost:

Students: £935
Academic/charity staff: £1250
Professionals: £1575

Website and registration:

Region:

Greater London

Keywords:

Digital Social Research, Analysis of social media, Big data analytics, Mixing qualitative and quantitative approaches, Survey and Questionnaire Design, Big data, Online communities, Social media data, Data Mining, Mixed Methods Data Handling and Data Analysis, Social Network Analysis, ICT and Software, NVivo, Creating graphs and charts, Interactive data visualisation

Related publications and presentations:

Digital Social Research
Analysis of social media
Big data analytics
Mixing qualitative and quantitative approaches
Survey and Questionnaire Design
Big data
Online communities
Social media data
Data Mining
Mixed Methods Data Handling and Data Analysis
Social Network Analysis
ICT and Software
NVivo
Creating graphs and charts
Interactive data visualisation

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