PowerPoint Presentation INF 200 Research Methods for Informatics Thirteenth week> Asynchronous Agenda Welcome to the thirteenth week of the course Course evaluation available Data mining, geographic information systems and network analysis Using Twitter data and instructions for this week’s reflections. Extra points opportunity CITI certificate Future activities 2 Welcome! Hello students. We are so close to the end of the semester. We all have faced challenging times. I hope part of what you have learned during this class can helped you to better understand this ‘new’ reality and how to make good judgments about it. This week we will study some basic information about some research methods that are used in the field of informatics and require computing power to work [They are amazing!] The objective is that you will have these methods on your radar. It is impossible to cover the methods in one week [even an introductory part] but I am suggesting some ways in which you can go deeper into the topics. 3 Going deeper Remember that in college you learn about several subjects but what is even more important is that you learn how to learn. You can start watching YouTube videos that can help you to understand tools based informatics. From that you can decide to go deeper on the topic and learn how to use the tool and some of the available software. 4 This week’s activities This week we do not have: > Discussion > Reading reflections The activities that you need to work on are: Homework 5: Finding Twitter data to inform academic research and using research methods based on informatics (due on Friday 11/20) Quiz 8: Questions about research methods that use informatics (due on Friday 11/20) 5 Course evaluation available As you know, the course evaluations have launched. Course evaluations will remain open until 11/29/2020 11:59 PM. Please take some time to evaluate the course in the following days. Research Methods for Informatics We have seen that our brain is constantly looking for patterns in the available data and information that helps our minds to make sense of the world. The mentioned process works fine [or more or less fine] when the data is not too large. We have also learned that our mind will discard a large amount of data just because it is overwhelming or impossible for the human mind to make sense of that much data. The bad news is that our brain is not designed to deal with complexity. The good news is that we acknowledge that incapacity and we have developed tools and strategies for coping with complexity. The most remarkable one is the creation of computers and strategies to use the computer power to help us to deal with a vast amount of data and find patterns within that data. 7 Research Methods for Informatics Besides the possibility to use computer power to make sense of data, nowadays, part of the reality is recorded by digital means. We can learn more about the ‘digital’ world and also know more about the physical world through digital data produced online, information systems, and computers. For example: Should we go survey 100 families with to terminal patients to understand their struggles? Or we can use the posts and comments on a blog for families with of terminal patients to identify main topics and the sentiments that some topics can create? 8 Research Methods using Informatics If almost 4 billion people use the internet, can you imagine how much information and patterns can be found using the user behavior, for example, in Google? Okay, Mr. Bezos knew the answer before us and created Google Analytics. There is data from companies, government, social media, etc. that can be used to learn more about the physical and digital reality. That is part of the informatics’ field. 9 Text mining>> as a research method Text mining can be used in the industry as a tool but also as a research method. The idea is to find patterns in data without human intervention to make sense of it. For example, you can: identify the sentiment (mood) of some messages discover in thousand of threatening letters which one poses a real risk while others are bluffing The top topic in massive number of texts Please watch these videos to have a general idea of how this method works. How does Text Mining Work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxqrIZyKKuk What is Text Mining? Natural Language Processing (NLP) & Text Mining Tutorial Using NLTK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3cjbB38Z4A Natural Language Processing (NLP) & Text Mining Tutorial Using NLTK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05ONoGfmKvA 10 Text mining>> going deeper Text analysis is offered in the CEHC at graduate level [fully online]. The CEAS offers Data Mining at undergraduate level. 11 Text mining>> going deeper You also can find several MOOCs on text analysis and data mining. You can look for free of charge* courses in Coursera, EdX, etc. * Free of charge unless you want a certificate that says you satisfactorily completed the course. 12 Social Network Analysis Again, just to have a general idea of what social network analysis is [and take the quiz] please watch these videos: What is Social Network Analysis? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT3EpF2EsbQ The Basics of Social Network Analysis: A Social Network Lab in R for Beginners https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJFHgFW7GUs There are several MOOCs offered for free in Coursera, EdX, etc. 13 GIS Geographic Information Systems To have a general idea of what social GIS is please watch this video. What is a GIS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZkqeBR9MFs Importance of GIS in research and applications https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soz5p_ZycVI There are several MOOCs offered for free in Coursera, EdX, etc. 14 GIS>> going deeper Geographic Information Systems The department of Urban Studies & Planning offers introductory and advanced GIS courses. 15 Homework 5 This week you check several web pages in order to fill out the template for homework 5. You will find the information and links of the mentioned webpages in the template that you can download from Blackboard. The template, you need to fill out is about exploring the possibility to use Twitter data to inform research, instead of using surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc. 16 Using Twitter data for your research Twitter data is frequently used for academic research. According to research conducted by Zimmer & Proferes (2014), to 2012 there were 382 studies conducted using Twitter data. You can see in these numbers the growth of studies using Twitter data Zimmer, M., & Proferes, N. J. (2014). A topology of Twitter research: Disciplines, methods, and ethics | Emerald Insight. Aslib Journal of Information Management. 17 Twitter data Some of the benefits of using twitter data are: The text (140-character) is easier to handle using computers [computers still do badly in understanding human meaning] It is possible to identify the messages that came from the same user and the geographic area of the user [this raises several concerns about privacy] The hashtag allows keeping together the conversation around the same topic. It is possible to track how a tweet is spread. e) In theory, real people express real thoughts freely [Yeah, I know that is not always true] 18 Twitter data In summary, Twitter data is a very valuable source of information for some research questions, marketing, policy making, etc. It worth to have an overall idea of this source of information. Please watch this video for having a better idea of how to use Twitter data. Using Twitter for Academic Research https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9xamUYS_s 19 Homework 5 For the activity, let’s assume you are considering using Twitter data to inform your research [your semester project or any other project]. Before making the decision, you need to explore this option. At least to have a better sense of what Twitter data is. Once the template is filled out, you are required to submit it on Blackboard (before midnight of FRIDAY 11/20) the template I am providing. Don't worry, it's an easy activity. The goal is to learn where to search and find datasets within Twitter data. In the template there is also a question about how any other of the presented research methods for informatics could be used in your research. In the template you can find the links where you can find the text you must read to fill out the template. 20 3 extra-points activity! Human Subjects Research (HSR) basic content is organized into two courses: Biomedical (Biomed) and Social-Behavioral-Educational (SBE). They are intended for anyone involved in research studies with human subjects, or who have responsibilities for setting policies and procedures with respect to such research, including Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). This is the information about the course that is in the CITI certification. Curriculum Group: Human Research Course Learner Group: IRB: Human Subject Research (Investigators, Advisors) Stage: Stage 1 - Basic Course 3 extra-points activity! You can get 3 extra-points for the semester grade if you get the CITI certificate. If you are interested in getting the CITI certificate, you need to register following the link below and complete the basic course. You do not need to pay because UAlbany is affiliated with the CITI Program. https://www.citiprogram.org/index.cfm?pageID=154&icat=0&clear=1 3 extra-points activity! How long does it take to complete the Basic course to get the certificate? Let say 4 to 5 hours. You just need to complete the basic course You need to evaluate if this opportunity is a convenient option for you. The information provided in the mini-course is quite interesting. One of the benefits is that 4 points can be the difference between an A- and an A and so on. 3 extra-points activity! The activity is optional. You just need to include the CITI certificate as part of the appendix of your final version of the research design. More details about the CITI certificate: The course is highlighted in this image For more information: https://www.albany.edu/orrc/ 24 Future activities Keep in mind that the activities for this and the following week are (from the syllabus): 25 Research Topic: Big Data Analysis This week you check several web pages in order to fill out the template for homework 5. You will find the information and links of the mentioned webpages in the template that you can download from Blackboard. The template, you need to fill out is about exploring the possibility to use Twitter data to inform research, instead of using surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc. For the activity, let’s assume you are considering using Twitter data to inform your research [your semester project or any other project]. Before making the decision, you need to explore this option. At least to have a better sense of what Twitter data is. Once the template is filled out, you are required to submit