Project #1

Project #1 is described in a google document, linked here:

HW1 on Friday of Week 4.  Your turn it in, simply by adding a link to your scorecard.

One of the tasks involves the use of a spreadsheet.  It is possible to do that step in the google drive spreadsheet, but it is easier to do many of the steps in Excel.  If you don't have excel on your computer, then you should go to a computer lab, and save your file to a usb flash drive, dropbox, or something else that will let you work on it again.

Check out this help video for working with excel:

direct link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX6tmJPxp4c

Get a handle on Google docs. You can do it!

Hey folks.  Sorry things did not go smoothly in class today.  The interwebs were sorta broken, plus, I needed to create and share scorecards with y'all before you could really get started on your progress report.

Good News!   Now you have what you need.  You should have an email in your gmail inbox saying that I have shared a document with you (the title of the document in the email may be wrong, but when you open it up, it will be named for you.  Don't worry)

Your task is to create a progress report for week 1 (even if we are just getting started, it is good practice).  You do that by following the instructions below, which is a snipped image of the "Progress report template"

Check out the link to the progress report template, below this image of the crucial information.

Here is the link that I promised.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x_ky8mYxC2FlcWNx-IUjyb5VhlQ6--nc41znFybTWPM/edit

Make sure that you put a brief profile together with scholarly and career info that help define your positive presentation of self on the interwebs. The other task that you have for this week is your team deliverable--- which mainly consists of making a circle for your team, and then, successfully hanging out as a team.  Post your evidence of you successful hangout to your progress report.

Welcome Spring 2013 students

Welcome to Research Methods with OU Sociology! 

Things to do before class starts.  (Spring Semester 2013)

1. Buy your textbook  
1. Social Research Methods by William Lawrence Neuman
2. 7th Edition  ($120 from amazon; $83 from secondary seller)
3. [ISBN: 0205615961]
4. OR!!!  Get the 6th edition, used online.  (~20 Bucks)
2. Take a look at:
1. Syllabus
2. Course schedule
3. Plan for Day 1
4. Helpful links
1. This video on digital literacy (in helpful links)
3. Create 
1. Google/gmail account  (unless you already have one for school work)
4. In the market for a new laptop, buckey balls, or a dyson vacuum?  
1. Woot sometimes has good deals on laptops
1. read the community discussions, not all deals are good
2. Any other good bargain suggestions for students?
1. let me know in the survey

Welser 3500, Spring 2013

Welcome to Soc 3500, Spring 2013.

1. This is our book.  The campus bookstores should have it as does Amazon (~$91.00). 
1. Neuman;   Social Research Methods: ISBN: 0205615961
2. I am updating the class and the syllabus.
1. Check back later in Fall Semester to see the updated version

Final Research Report

Lime cat sez use your brain. 

What do you need to create for the final research report?   The description of the assignment is  here:
Read these instructions:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kQQHDh6uhIuaoWl_LWCDaAYobMGSRriBFiFUT8YYQG8/edit
USE THIS DATA: http://db.tt/JjeomqVk

Create your document and share it with Ted Now:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dC00N0padE03NTZGM3FROWlfc2ZRbkE6MQ

See newly added examples on using excel here: 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bsW0w9XxYwpiHOxDz-5b6c9CNPdXeHK0BOOg5_L8Ibw/edit


But here are the instructions in a nutshell:

1. Use the data we collected to describe patterns in the variables we collected. 
1. use your brain to find interesting things to look at
2. Here is the link to the final data set.   please download it and save a version of your own on your computer, or to your USB drive, or to Dropbox-- wherever you prefer to store your important files: USE THIS DATA: http://db.tt/JjeomqVk
2. look for patterns in how some variables are related to others. 
1. Use your brain to come up with interesting variables
2. Display the results in interesting ways
3. Then right up what you found in a summary with the same general format as the abstract assignment. 
1. The details of what to include are in the link above
4. The dataset is NOW ready.  
1. The first step is to create some basic descriptive statistics, and create some new variables that might be interesting. 
2. Next step would be to make some graphs that would be potentially informative.
5. This is an exploratory study--  you need to do some exploring.  Not all of your explorations will end up being noteworthy.  
1. I will start adding examples of things you can create in excel.   I will start with how to make transformed versions of your variables.
6. The phrase "use your brain"  is a joking way to emphasize that there are many hard parts of doing research-- but one of the most difficult is figuring out how to learn something interesting from the data. This takes effort, and is hard to teach, but is demonstrated in the research that we read for HW2.

Creating new variables: Tips and techniques

See the google doc for info on creating variables.  Leave comments there if you have questions.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bsW0w9XxYwpiHOxDz-5b6c9CNPdXeHK0BOOg5_L8Ibw/edit

Here is a link to the comment data sheet as an excel that I used in the above example. Use it to practice making variables.  I will post a different data set that combines both of our data sheets once we have all the data collected. http://db.tt/VWMbFBRk

Extra Credit

Go to the Login ID variables google doc.   Sorry I was so slow getting this posted-- but here is a pretty easy chance for some extra credit.  We need to enter karma and the other login ID variables for the rest of the posters in the first 500 messages that we collected content variables for.

So-- here is the deal.   You get 10 pts extra credit for a set of 20, each person is limited to 2 sets max.

1. Go to the google doc
2. claim a set of 20 login ids to code (put your name in the coder field for those 20
3. open the reddit thread
4. search for the login id
5. find it and click the link on the name
6. copy their info into the spreadsheet
7. Finish your 20
8. take a screen shot, and add it to your homework #4 page.
9.