Monthly Archives: November 2014

Secret photographing of classes at Harvard??

Maybe you missed it, but it has been big news in the Boston area:  classes were secretly photographed in spring 2014 as part of a Harvard University research project about classroom attendance. About 2,000 students in 10 lecture halls were … Continue reading

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The joys of electronic media

With all due respect to the research that suggests reading on paper results in better understanding and learning…, it’s hard to resist the appeal of a well-constructed e-book.  Consider chapter 1 of Investigating the Social World:  It’s an introduction to … Continue reading

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So much to do, So little time to do it

I often feel this way as I plan my research methods class and think about activities to assign. Of course, I’ve sort of created the problem in Investigating the Social World by including far more exercises and other activities for … Continue reading

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Crossing the Political Line?

In the Big Data world, a small experiment can have a big impact.  Stanford University political scientists Adam Bonica and Jonathan Rodden, and Dartmouth’s Kyle Dropp designed a Big Data experiment to test whether information on the ideological preferences of … Continue reading

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