Jul 10, 2017 – Sep 10, 2017 |

MOOC: Transparent and Open Social Science Research

Demand is growing for evidence-based policy making, but there is also growing recognition in the social science community that limited transparency and openness in research have contributed to widespread problems. With this 3-week, self-paced Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), you can explore the causes of limited transparency in social science research, as well as tools to make your own work more open and reproducible.

Transparent and Open Social Science Research is based on Professor Ted Miguel‘s UC Berkeley course on methods for transparent research. He and Project Scientist Garret Christensen lead the online version. They will be online to answer your questions and facilitate discussions.

In addition to providing a solid theoretical foundation and extensive reading list for researchers looking to make their research more transparent, the course also gives opportunities for hands-on practice with tools like p-curve and the Open Science Framework (OSF). The topics we cover include:

An overview of the Reproducibility Crisis and the Open Science movement
Publication Bias
Pre-registration and Pre-analysis Plans
Replication
Meta-Analysis
Open Data
Data Visualization
The future of Open Science

This course is hosted by FutureLearn, a platform that uses a social learning model to better engage online learners. This means that, rather than having discussions in forums, learners can start a discussion at any point in the course, just like in a physical classroom.

Learners are expected to spend about 5 hours per week on course videos, readings, and exercises.

The course is open to anyone, anywhere, but learners with some statistical background will likely get more out of it. The first course run formally ends on August 31, but extended enrollment means you can take the course anytime until September 8, 2017!