Project focus
The aim of the project was to introduce social economics students to data science. In a hybrid course, they acquired theoretical and practical knowledge of regression and classification methods. The lectures were supplemented by code examples, thus providing hands-on experience. In the tutorial, the acquired knowledge was applied through small exercises. The students worked collaboratively in small groups using JupyterHub and documented their results in Quarto, learned project documentation, and acquired knowledge through pair programming.
Instructors prepared the materials and provided an introduction. They also supported the students during the group work phase, encouraging them to help each other and solve problems together. At the end of a practice session, various solution approaches were discussed in plenary.
The aim of the course was to reduce uncertainty in dealing with data and to teach programming with R using relevant examples. Upon completion, the students were able to independently conduct data analyses for their own research projects. In addition, the course prepared students for collaborative work and encouraged joint problem-solving.
Review and results
In the second edition of the course, students were successfully taught the fundamentals they need to work independently with data. Overall, the students are now more familiar with various aspects of data science methods and their practical implementation in R. They are able to reflect on different methods and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of various machine learning techniques. This prepares them for the demands of the professional world, as well as for empirical theses and further studies. Furthermore, the students were introduced to collaborative work tools such as JupyterHub. With Quarto, they also learned a way to combine code, documentation, and results reports in a notebook format – an important contribution to the reproducibility of scientific findings.
They gained practical experience in creating graphics. Furthermore, through collaborative work, they learned skills in project work and project documentation. Furthermore, group work enabled them to leverage experiences in dealing with strong heterogeneity in students’ prior knowledge. The use of code in the lecture and the use of group work in the tutorial proved successful. Furthermore, students emphasized in their feedback that the course was very application-oriented and prepared them for future careers in economics, sociology, and business administration. The integration of two practical presentations – one from the field of an NGO and the other from an IT consultancy – delivered by former students of the Department of Social Economics was perceived as very enriching and provided the students with excellent orientation to their careers.
Tips from lecturers for lecturers
The lecture resulted in increased use of Quarto (slides) with the integration of code snippets and experience with using Quarto as a didactic tool. Quarto was also used in the tutorial. However, in the second round, Quarto documents were used instead of slides, as these did not pose an overflow problem and longer examples could be presented coherently rather than spread across multiple slides. The teaching concept with small group work enabled the development of didactic skills in supporting small groups. The present-based framework, new to this course format, enabled closer contact with participants and better identification of problems. At the same time, however, it also required more motivation and frustration management from the instructors.