Topic outline

  • Unit 1: Introduction

    To complete this unit you need to

    1. Participate the introductory lecture (optional) or watch the introduction videos
    2. Create a username at Zotero.org and Register your Zotero account to access course materials
    3. Read the instructions for written assignments and plagiarism policy.
    4. Complete the unit 1 discussion forum task according to the instructions that will be posted to the forum.
    5. Choose a group to indicate what you want to learn. The course content may be customized based on the choice.
    6. Choose your preferred participation option between In person or online teaching
    7. Sign up for the pre-exam
    8. Study for the pre-exam and complete the pre-exam.

    The purpose of the introduction unit is to familiarize you with how a blended learning course works. The unit starts with an introductory lecture, followed by a short introductory forum task. The introductory unit concludes with the course pre-exam.

    • Forum icon
      Unit 1 discussion forum
      Students must
      Make forum posts: 1

    • Course practicalities

      These videos explain how the course works and explain some things that you could consider when choosing which statistical software to use for the course assignment.

    • H5P icon
      Course introduction (13:35) H5P
    • H5P icon
      Focus on the basics (12:30) H5P
    • H5P icon
      Structure of a learning unit (3:53) H5P
    • H5P icon
      Using interactive videos (5:42) H5P
    • H5P icon
      Using discussion forums (3:19) H5P
    • H5P icon
      Written assignments and plagiarism policy (7:28) H5P
    • H5P icon
      Computer assignments (8:11) H5P
    • H5P icon
      Credits and grading (7:58) H5P
    • H5P icon
      Course materials (2:13) H5P

    • Course materials

      The reading materials for the course are distributed through the Zotero reference management system. To get access to the materials:

      1. Create an user account at Zotero.org
      2. Enter your Zotero username below
      3. The course instructor will send you an invitation to a group library, which you need to accept.

      After you have accepted the invitation, you can access the material either online with a web browser or by installing the Zotero software on your computer and entering your username and password to the synchronisation options.


    • Teaching tools

    • Tools for online teaching

      The course runs in hybrid mode. We have in-person seminars at Aalto on Wednesdays and the same seminar will run online on Thursdays. The information below is relevant only if you want to join the online version of the course.

      We will use Zoom for the online versions of seminars and computer classes. In the computer classes, some of the guidance can be provided using Zoom's remote control feature. If you are using a Mac, you will need to adjust your security settings of your computer to allow this to happen. You will need to do this after the remote control session has been initiated the first time.

    • URL icon
      Zoom documentation: Remote control URL
    • URL icon
      Zoom documentation: Security settings on Mac URL
    • Flinga is an online teaching tool that we will use on the online version of the course. Flinga is like an online whiteboard where we can add PostIt notes and draw. See the following short video on how to add content to Flinga. You can also try it out using the whiteboard linked below.
    • H5P icon
      Using Flinga (0:35) H5P
    • URL icon
      Try using Flinga Whiteboard here URL
    • Miro is a more advanced whiteboard tool. We will use Miro in Unit 5 to draw different functional forms on the online version of the course. See the following short video on how to add content to Miro. You can also try it out using the whiteboard linked below.
    • H5P icon
      How to create content in Miro (3:33) H5P
    • URL icon
      Try using Miro Whiteboard here URL

    • Choosing a statistical software

      The analysis techniques that we cover on the course are fairly basic and can be completed with any general statistical package. The course provides support for Stata, R, and SPSS. If you do not have any experience on any of these software, Stata is recommended. More technically oriented students R might also be a good alternative. If you are not sure how to get access to these software, please use the course discussion forum to ask about this.

      If you want to get a thorough introduction to these software, you can also try completing the analysis assignments using different software. The two videos below discuss differences between the software.

    • H5P icon
      About statistical software (21:19) H5P
    • URL icon
      Screencast: Demonstration of SPSS, Stata, and R URL

    • Group choice

      The course content will be customized based on your choice. The students that want to do quantitative research themselves are shown a few extra activities that teach concepts that are important if you want to estimate statistical models yourself, but are not important for the interpretation and evaluation of the results. Your choice will not affect the grade or credits and you can change the choice at any time. Your choice will not be visible for other students.

    • Group choice icon
      Choose a group Group choice
      Students must
      View
      Choose a group
    • Choice icon
      In person or online teaching Choice
      Students must
      Make a choice
      In 2022-2023 the course will by default run in an in-person configuration. The plan is to have in-person seminars in Aalto on Wednesdays and at JYU on Thursdays. However, a couple of students have asked for an online option and we may make that happen if there is enough interest: Please indicate your preferred mode of participation by answering this poll.

    • Crowdsourcing captions, video descriptions, and supporting materials

      The law requires the video materials of the course to be captioned. 

      To get good captions for the course videos, we use crowdsourcing model where the students will check and fix the captions. All videos are initially captioned using either rev.com service or by undergraduate students. However, some of the specialized terminology is not know to a generic caption worker. Therefore, someone who understands the course material needs to check and correct the captions.

      Captions are edited using the YouTube captions editor. Please enter your YouTube username below and then read the instructions on how the captions are edited. Most of captions have already been checked during a previous run of the course, so in most cases there should be very little to fix beyond simple proofreading a transcript.

      All slides and transcripts will be made available through an OSF repository at https://osf.io/c8qt6/. Because of the large number of materials, this will be crowdsourced as well. See the instructions below for getting access to the OSF repository.

    • Page icon
      Request access to OSF repository Page
      Students must
      Mark as done
    • URL icon
      Crowdsourcing of materials URL
      Students must
      View

      Read the instructions for checking the captions and check your current assignments.

    • Pre-exam

      The pre-exam is a traditional written exam that you must pass to be able to participate and get credits. The purpose of the pre-exam is to get everyone on the same basic level at the start of the course. The exam covers the following two books:

      Singleton, R., & Straits, B. C. (2018). Approaches to social research (Sixth edition). New York: Oxford University Press. (Hard copy at library, PDF at course Zotero library)

      Allison, P. D. (1998). Multiple Regression: A Primer (1st edition). Thousand Oaks, Calif: Pine Forge Press. (ebook at library, PDF at course Zotero library)

      The exam consists of four questions. In the first question is term definitions, in which you need to define 8 terms from the course material. The three remaining questions are essays. The exam questions are chosen randomly form a question pool below. You do not get to choose which you answer, but should be prepared to answer any of them. No materials are allowed in the exam room.

      The exam is done using the EXAM electronic examination system. There are a few classrooms equipped with the system and you need to reserve a time in one of these classes. Then, at the reserved time, you arrive in the EXAM class, log into the computer and follow the instructions to complete the exam.

    • Sign up for the pre-exam

      Sign up for the pre-exam using the EXAM electronic examination system. The exam is open for the first two weeks of December. See the links below or the syllabus for the exact dates.



    • Sign up for the pre-exam retake

      If you missed the original exam or are not satisfied with your grade, you can complete a retake exam by the end of January



    • File icon
      Question pool for the exam File PDF
      Students must
      View
    • URL icon
      How to operate in the EXAM studio (2:13) URL

    • Materials

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Unit 2: Causal inference and basics of linear regression model