Digital data presents a wealth of possibilities for new data collection, thereby expanding the scope of research questions that can be answered within the social sciences. Yet, new efforts are plagued by the twin problems of technological complexity and generalizability. In this half day workshop, we present an overview of survey research for sampling and its application to questions about the Internet. We then turn to new sources for collecting data such as Twitter and Facebook, and then consider them within the lessons learned from traditional survey research.
The workshop will present a number of examples of online surveys and analyses of Twitter and Facebook, and also enable students to bring and discuss questions and issues from their own research and thesis projects. Students with an interest in quantitative methods for making claims about and through the internet will find this course especially useful.
The workshop will introduce the audience to online survey tools as well as tools for capturing data from Twitter and Facebook. In particular, we cover Limesurvey and NodeXL, two recent free offerings designed to simplify data collection for social scientists. The course requires no prior experience with coding or statistics.
The workshop will include presentations and demonstrations, and enable participants to bring their needs for surveys and survey data. It will discuss issues including data collection, sampling, representativeness, and different online survey tools and approaches.
Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow
Bernie Hogan examines how to capture, represent and think about social networks, especially personal social networks. His work focuses on the role of design in social media, network capture techniques and theories of relationships.
Research Associate
Grant Blank's work focuses on the social and cultural implications of the Internet and new media, quantitative and qualitative methods, and cultural sociology. He taught on the OII social statistics courses.
