Undergraduate Course: Advanced Quantitative Methods Research (SCIL10098)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course consists of a series of workshops tackling advanced debates and skills in quantitative methods. It is designed to be responsive and allow students to learn advanced techniques. Students can select a bespoke course comprising of 4 expert taught workshops of their choice. The workshops provide hands-on experience of methods that complement and extend those covered elsewhere. |
| Course description |
Methodological developments in the Social Sciences over the past decades have led to increases in the specialisation and diversity of techniques that are used to make sense of the social world. This Research Training Centre course responds to these trends by providing access to an exciting programme of cutting-edge methods workshops all delivered by experts in the field. Workshops typically occur throughout the year on varying days and times, providing students flexibility in scheduling.
The programme will include workshops covering advanced quantitative methods techniques and current developments in the field (e.g. reproducibility, demographic analysis, latent class analysis, natural experiments, causal methods).
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Students will need to be familiar with basic concepts in quantitative methods, and should also have some familiarity with using statistical software such as R and/or Stata. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Full Year |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 8,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 4,
Dissertation/Project Supervision Hours 4,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 12,
Online Activities 4,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 4,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
160 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Long essay - 80% - max 3000 words (must pass).
In workshop activities - 20% - varied word count (must pass). |
| Feedback |
Feedback on all assessed work shall normally be returned within three weeks of submission. Where this is not possible, students shall be given clear expectations regarding the timing and methods of feedback. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Apply a range of advanced quantitative methods to social science research questions.
- Engage with specialized software and techniques that enable the use of advanced quantitative methods.
- Demonstrate their skills in analysis, problem solving and presentation.
- Integrate social science methods and knowledge with advanced methodology.
- Develop their own research questions and understand how these might be answered (or not) with specialized advanced methods.
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Reading List
Connelly, R., Gayle, V., & Playford, C. (2020). Transparent and Reproducible Data Analysis. SAGE Publications Limited.
Fairchild, A., McDaniel, H. L,. Best (but oft-forgotten) practices: mediation analysis, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 105, Issue 6, June 2017, Pages 1259-1271.
Freedman, D.A., 2008. Survival Analysis. A primer, The American Statistician, 62:2, 110-119.
Magidson, J., Vermunt, J. K., & Madura, J. P., (2020). Latent Class Analysis, In P. Atkinson, S. Delamont, A. Cernat, J.W. Sakshaug, & R.A. Williams (Eds.), SAGE Research Methods Foundations. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
The lead attribute will be research and enquiry. The course gives students hands on experience of applying methods to social issues. It supports their personal and intellectual autonomy in selecting methods to study and use in context. It shows them to be effective and proactive individuals who can work with their peers to apply methods and solve problems. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Kevin Ralston
Tel:
Email: Kev.Ralston@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Ieva Rascikaite
Tel:
Email: irascika@ed.ac.uk |
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