RELACSS Beginner Computational Social Science Workshop

RELACSS is a recurring data analysis workshop offered by Dr. Manyu Li for Louisiana college students (see the Latest Call for Applications). Materials are designed with the interactive shiny app with the learnr package. All resources used in the workshop are shared/linked on this page. No software download is needed. The link under each module will bring you to the Shiny learnr lesson on shinyapps website.

All lessons are developed by Dr. Manyu Li licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise stated. For other resources redirected from this page, please refer to the authors’ website for licensing information.

Module 1 (Week 1) - Checking it out

Taking a bird-eye view of the social science research inquiry process

By the end of the module, learners will be able to

• describe what data analysis is;
• state one example of how social scientist solves research question through data analysis;
• identify the role of data analysis in social science

Access Module 1 Lesson on shinyapps via web browser (no installation required)

Module 2 (Week 2 - 3) - Trying it out

Analyzing data with precooked R codes

By the end of the module, learners will be able to

• describe fundamental steps of research (inquiry) process and data analysis in social science;
• identify data structure through the use of a real-world cross-cultural open dataset;
• interpret the meaning of existing research questions
• run existing R codes to solve research questions;
• interpret the results of the analysis performed

Access Module 2a Lesson on shinyapps via web browser (no installation required)

Access Module 2b Lesson on shinyapps via web browser (no installation required)

Module 3 (Week 4) - Changing the game

Modifying research questions and editing R codes

By the end of the module, learners will be able to

• Modify research questions based on learners’ own interests in the real-world cross-cultural open data;
• Compare basic R codes and distinguish codes based on analytic purposes;
• Repeat the data analysis process from Module 2 with modified research questions;
• Interpret the results of the analysis performed

Access Module 3 Lesson on shinyapps via web browser (no installation required)

Module 4 (Week 5 - 6) - Taking charge

Creating data analysis plan and codes from scratch

By the end of the module, learners will be able to

• design new research questions with an expanded list of variables from the real-world cross-cultural open data;
• formulate a data analysis plan to answer the research questions developed;
• write and run R codes to administer the data analysis plan;
• present the findings and interpretation of the results

Access Module 4 Lesson on shinyapps via web browser (no installation required)

Access 2022 RELACSS participant products and presention on shinyapps via web browser (no installation required)

RELACSS 2022 Participants

Funding Source: The program is sponsored by the Board of Regents Louisiana Research Competitiveness Subprogram (RCS) on understanding students’ STEM learning awarded to Dr. Manyu Li and the Open Education Resource Research Fellow awarded by the OpenEd Group to Dr. Manyu Li.