This class is a project-based, collaborative learning experience. For most of the semester there will be regular class readings that culminate in lab projects of data visualizations and brief data analysis that you will post to our course blog. Course assignments will be structured around a research project involving an U.S. social justice hashtag of your choice within the areas of society, culture, politics, and economics. Each study area will be comprised of one or two working groups. Data related to your hashtag will be scraped from Twitter and you will be expected to research other data sources related to your theme. You will use these data to craft graphs, maps, text analysis, and network graphs. You will be assigned to work groups and comment on your peers’ visualizations and analysis. You will also secure a dataset of your own choosing to analyze in class. A mid-term and final exam will be based on course readings and labs.These assignments will prepare you for the capstone of the course: a final in-class presentation of summary findings that you will also share as a short video on the course website.
Any absence requires a note in advance to the professor; four unexplained absences will result in a loss of a letter grade. See the Assignment Calendar at the end of this syllabus for exact dates. Details about labs and the following blog posts and comments will be handed out in class. Posts and comments are due by Friday at 5 p.m. to the course blog. All written assignments will be posted to the course website (http://commons.trincoll.edu/amst-data-driven).
- Participation & Attendance 20%
- Post & Comments 20%
- Mid-term Exam 15%
- Mid-term Presentation 5%
- Final Exam 20%
- Final Presentation 15%
- Final Video of Presentation 5%
Assignment Calendar
Fr. 1/27 Post re ranking hashtag choices
Fri. 2/3 Post re Lab 1: Data Scraping
Fri. 2/10 Comment on Lab 1
Fri. 2/17 Post re Lab 2: Graphs
Fri. 2/24 Comment on Lab 2
Fri. 3/3 Post re Lab 3: Maps
Wed. 3/8 Mid-Term Exam
Fri. 3/10 Comment on Lab 3
Fri. 3/24 Post re Lab 4: Social Network Analysis
Fri. 3/31 Comment on Lab 4
Fri. 4/14 Post re Lab 5: Text Analysis
Fri. 4/21 Comment on Lab 5
Fri. 4/28 Post re Lab 6: Graphing Second Dataset
Fri. 5/7 Comment on Lab 5
Fri. 5/7 Comment on Presentation
Tues. 5/9 Final Exam