HSS 407 Computational Social Science

MW 10:30-11:45 (N4-1209)
Instructor: Lanu Kim (lanukim@kaist.ac.kr)
TA: Jaehyeon Myung (mjhbest@kaist.ac.kr)
Office hours: by appointment
Class website: KLMS

1. Course Description

This course aims to introduce computational social science and let students have research
experience in the field. Social science discusses human behavior situated in society and includes
disciplines such as sociology, political science, communication, psychology, etc. As more human
behavior occurs online or leaves a digital trace, digitized information about human behavior is
starting to explode. Computation social science is a field that utilizes digital information to study
human behavior by creatively collecting data and devising research methods.

This is an interactive class that requires hands-on work on computational social science research.
This class consists of two big parts. During the first half of the course, the instructor will
demonstrate various perspectives and approaches to computational social science. Students will
set a research question they want to explore during a semester and choose which methods to
answer the question. For the second half of the course, students will acquire knowledge and
skills to answer the research question, which will have them finish the individual project by the
end of the semester.

2. Learning objectives

Upon successful completion of the course, you will be able to:

• Recognize the meanings and necessities of computational social science research.
• Ask a social science research question.
• Design research methods and compare strengths and weaknesses.
• Answer your research question based on quantitative evidence and discuss limitations
and implications of the research.

3. Textbook
Salganik, M. J. (2019). Bit by bit: Social research in the digital age. Princeton University Press.

4. Course schedule

Week 1 What is computational social science? (8/29, 8/31)

Reading

• Bit by bit: Social research in the digital age, Preface.

 • Bit by bit: Social research in the digital age, Chapter 1: Introduction.

Week 2 Big data - What is big data and why makes it special? (9/5, 9/7)

Reading

• Bit by bit: Social research in the digital age, Chapter 2: Observing behavior.

Week 3 Big data - What is big data and why makes it special? (practice) (9/14)

Reading

• Bit by bit: Social research in the digital age, Chapter 2: Observing behavior.

(No class on 9/12, Chuseok)

Week 4 Big data – Text analysis (practice) (9/19, 9/21)

Reading

• Bit by bit: Social research in the digital age, Chapter 2: Observing behavior.

(No class on 9/12, Chuseok)

Week 5 Surveys (9/26, 9/28)

Reading

• Bit by bit: Social research in the digital age, Chapter 3: Asking questions.

Week 6 Proposal presentation I (10/5)

(No class on 10/3, 개천절, National foundation day)

Week 7 Proposal presentation II (10/12)

(No class on 10/10, 한글날 대체휴일, Korean day observed)

Week 8 (Midterm week, no class) (10/19, 10/21)

Week 9 Experiments (10/24, 10/26)

Reading

• Bit by bit: Social research in the digital age, Chapter 4: Running experiments.

Week 10 Ethics (10/31, 11/2)

Reading

• Bit by bit: Social research in the digital age, Chapter 6: Ethics.

Week 11 Basic statistics I (11/7, 11/9)

11/7 Types of variables + R lab

11/9 Descriptive statistics + R lab (11:59pm lab assignment due)

Week 12 Basic statistics II (11/14, 11/16)

11/9 Correlation and causation + R lab

11/11 Correlation and causation + R lab (11:59pm lab assignment due)

Week 13 Visualization (11/21, 11/23)

Reading

• Tufte, E. (2001). “Graphical Excellence.” The visual display of quantitative information.

Graphics Press.

11/16 Effective visualization + R lab

11/18 Effective visualization + R lab (11:59pm lab assignment due)

Week 14 Open topic (or guest lecture) (11/28, 11/30)

TBD

Week 15 Final presentation (12/5, 12/7)

12/5 Final presentation I

12/7 Final presentation II

Week 16 (Final week, no class)

Final project paper due (12/15 THU 11:59pm)

5. Evaluation and Assignment

Evaluation

• Attendance 10%
• Participation 10%
• Class project 60%
• Lab assignment 20%

Attendance
Attendance is required for this class. You can miss up to 2 classes without losing any points. If
you miss more than 2 classes, 2 points will be deducted from attendance for each missed class.
There is no need to inform the instructor that you are not coming to class. If you are more than 5
minutes late, you will be considered being absent.

Participation
This includes your participation in class. I encourage you to speak up and join in the discussion
during the class.

Class project
This class requires you to write one computational social science paper by the end of the
semester, which we call a class project. Each student will be required to come up with one
research question and find a way to answer it throughout the semester. You can team up with
other students (3 max team members), but then higher criteria on evaluating the outcome will be
imposed. The key to succeed in this class is to seriously participate in class project and build it
up throughout the quarter.

Lab assignment
The primary purpose of labs is to help you prepare the final project. Each lab assignment will ask
you to prepare pieces of your final project. By the end of the day we do a lab (11:59pm), you
need to submit your lab work.

6. Class policies

Email policy
I answer most emails within two business days. If you email over the weekend, I will typically
respond on Monday. I keep messages short, usually five sentences or less, so if you have a
question that merits an in-depth answer or longer discussion, please come to my office hours.

Office hours
My office hours are open to any students who want to discuss class contents as well as learning
strategy. You do not need to email me in advance to visit my scheduled office hours. If you
cannot make my office hours, we will use email to find a time that works for both of us.

KLMS
Please check our course website for various kinds of information for course schedule change or
feedback. It is your responsibility to check KLMS for any kinds of announcements or
information pertinent to the class and class assignments. If you are having problems submitting
an assignment to KLMS or if you need an introduction to using the system, please contact
KAIST IT service.

Late submission policy

The 20% of the your earned point will be deducted for every 12 hours late in submitting an
assignment.

Zoom class policy

I expect you to attend and participate the class. Since it is extremely difficult to see if you are
paying attention to class over Zoom, I will require you to turn on the camera during the class
most of the time.

Grade disputes
Any student who wishes to dispute a grade earned on any written assignment, exam short
answer, or exam essay question may do so by submitting a written memo detailing specifically
why the assignment should receive a different grade. The memo should explain how the
assignment met the requirements or how the answer as written (and not based on what could be
inferred from what was written) addressed the question. You must wait 48 hours after receiving
the assignment to submit the memo, and it has to be submitted within one week (7 days) of
receiving the grade. You must submit your memo to me by email.

Academic honesty
As students at KAIST, you are expected to follow the highest standards of academic conduct.
Academic misconduct includes plagiarism, multiple submissions, exams, and collaboration for
homework. In a case of suspected misconduct, our class follows the policy of KAIST. During the
process of dispute, all actions are reported to the dean of the department of Humanities and
Social Sciences.