[Air-L] Online Research Methods - short course (Canberra, 11-15 Jan 2010)

[Robert Ackland]

I am teaching a 5-day intensive course on online research methods. 
The course is scheduled to run 11-15 January 2010 in Canberra at the 
Australian National University, and will be held as part of the 
Australian Consortium for Social and Political Research Inc. (ACSPRI) 
Summer Program.  The course draws from the ANU's masters 
specialisation on the Social Science of the Internet, which was set up 
in 2008.

Here is the outline for the short course:

The World Wide Web is only around 20 years old, but it has transformed 
the way we work, collaborate, engage in commerce, participate in the 
political process and interact socially.  This course will provide 
students with thorough training in online research methods for social 
science Internet research.  While "obtrusive" social research methods 
(e.g. online surveys and focus groups) will be covered, there is 
greater emphasis on unobstrusive research methods, e.g. quantitative 
analysis of Internet trace data from websites, blogsites and social 
networking sites such as Facebook.

The course has a mixture of lectures and practical sessions.  By 
taking this course, students will acquire important skills necessary 
for conducting empirical social science Internet research both in 
academic and industry settings.  Students will learn:
• What online research methods are best suited for researching various 
economic, political and social phenomena on the Internet, and how do 
these differ from methods traditionally used by social scientists?
• What are the available tools and data for online research?
• How to collect and analyse data from the Internet?
• How to design and implement a research project that uses online 
research methods?
• What are the ethical implications of the various online research 
methods?

For more information on the course and booking, see:

http://www.acspri.org.au/?page=current_program&course_id=50&program_id=20&programID=20

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Dr Robert Ackland
Fellow and Masters Coordinator, Australian Demographic and Social 
Research Institute, The Australian National University

e-mail:   robert.ackland at anu.edu.au
homepage: http://adsri.anu.edu.au/people/robert.php
project:  http://voson.anu.edu.au
ph./fax:  +61 2 6125 0312/+61 2 6125 2992

Information about the Master of Social Research
(Social Science of the Internet specialisation):
http://adsri.anu.edu.au/study/msr.php
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