Saint-Louis University - Bruxelles
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POLS1330 - Quantitative methods I: data production



Credits : 5

Lecturer :
Teaching assistants :
Mode of delivery :
Face-to-face , first term, 30 hours of theory and 15 hours of exercises.

Timetable :
First term
Thursday from 08:30 to 10:30 at 43 Botanique 3

Language of instruction :
The course is given in French. English reading may be necessary.

Learning outcomes :
- Mastery the basis of the quantitative data's epistemology
- Ability to produce a questionnaire
- Mastery of basic logical operations
- Mastery of the vocabulary, basic operations and handling of a database
- Ability to realize several basic transformations of variables
- Initiation to statistics and secondary data analysis
- Being able to read and assess an social science paper using quantitative analysis


Prerequisites :
For the Bachelor in Information and Communication :

For the Bachelor in Political Sciences: General :

For the Bachelor in Sociology and Anthropology :


Co-requisites :
None

Course contents :
1 Introduction : « healthy suspicion in statistics »
2 Epistemology 1 : what is quantitative research ?
3 Epistemology 2 : what is quantitative data ?
4 Producing a research questionnaire
5 No lesson : interview with teacher/assistant
6 Interviewing respondents with a questionnaire
7 Basics in database handling
8 Working on variables
9 Descriptive statistics and assessment of the sample
10 Working on second hand data : existing databases
11 Assessing a paper making use of quantitatve analysis
12 Focus : quantitative survey through internet
13 Q-A



Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
The course will be taught ex-cathedra 2h/week and will provide the theoretical elements needed to meet the learning outcomes. We will make use of concrete situation, and clarify which good practices to develop in quantitative surveys. (An important precision follows at the end of this document).
The practical exercises (TP) will require commitment from the students, as they are set to allow them to put in practice the theoretical elements presented during the course, in particular : creating and making use of a questionnaire from a research question, interviewing respondents, creation of a database and transforming variables. Exchanges between students as well as with teaching assistant and the teacher will be fostered. These sessions are also intended to help students realize the expected deliverable (cf. below).


Assessment methods and criteria :
Students will be assessed 1) through a deliverable that will be a group assignment - instructions will be given during the first lesson and made available on Moodle (60%), 2) through an 2-hours-examination at the end of the term (40%).
!! This EU applies the "absorbing note" principle, which means that in case of failure of one of the two assessment, it will have to be represented regardless of the score obtained on the other assessment. However, the mark of the successful assessment (examination or work) may be retained, unless specifically requested by the student, during the same academic year.


Recommended or required reading :
Will be made available during the course.
All slides and other material available on Moodle.


Other information :
At the university level, it is up to the students to decide wether they attend to the lessons or not. Teacher and assistants of course recommend a maximal attendance at both lessons and TPs. Except in the event of force majeure, non-attendance and its potential consequence are the student's sole responsibility.
In the same way, students are free to organize their time during the academic year. Once again, we recommend a continuous assessment of the course comprehension AS WELL AS a continuous commitment in the deliverable.
Students who decide no to follow those instructions and who would unfortunately fail at the January examination round should be aware that no catching-up session will be organized in the second term, nor in ex-cathedra teaching, nor in informal meetings with teaching assistants. The course content, about which the students were allowed to ask questions during the first term will be considered as seen and understood.
Students who failed in January will of course be given the opportunity to get explanation about their deliverable and examination, but it is their sole responsibility to bring the needed improvement at June or August sessions.