4.7

stars

479 ratings

Martin Hilbert

9,635 already enrolled

Offered By

Computational Social Science SpecializationUniversity of California, Davis

What you will learn

Discover how social networks and human dynamics create social systems and recognizable patterns
Define and discuss big data opportunities and limitations
Web scrape online data, create a social network visualization with it, and use machine learning to analyze its content
Use computer simulations to program your own artificial societies to explore business strategies and policy options

About this Specialization

3,112 recent views

For more information please view the Computational Social Science Trailer Digital technology has not only revolutionized society, but also the way we can study it. Currently, this is taken advantage of by the most valuable companies in Silicon Valley, the most powerful governmental agencies, and the most influential social movements. What they have in common is that they use computational tools to understand, and ultimately influence human behavior and social dynamics. An increasing part of human interaction leaves a massive digital footprint behind. Studying it allows us to gain unprecedented insights into what society is and how it works, including its intricate social networks that had long been obscure. Computational power allows us to detect hidden patterns through analytical tools like machine learning and to natural language processing. Finally, computer simulations enable us to explore hypothetical situations that may not even exist in reality, but that we would like to exist: a better world. This specialization serves as a multidisciplinary, multi-perspective, and multi-method guide on how to better understand society and human behavior with modern research tools. This specialization gives you easy access to some of the exciting new possibilities of how to study society and human behavior. It is the first online specialization collectively taught by Professors from all 10 University of California campuses.

Applied Learning Project

While no formal requisites are necessary to join this course, at the end you will web-scrape 'Big Data' from the web, execute a social network analysis ('SNA'), find hidden patterns with machine learning ('ML') and natural language processing ('NLP'), and create agent-based computer models ('ABM') to explore what might happen if we would change certain things in society.

Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

100% online courses

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Coursera Labs

Includes hands on learning projects.

Learn more about Coursera Labs

Flexible Schedule

Set and maintain flexible deadlines.

Beginner Level

Approximately 6 months to complete

Suggested pace of 3 hours/week

English

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Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

100% online courses

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Coursera Labs

Includes hands on learning projects.

Learn more about Coursera Labs

Flexible Schedule

Set and maintain flexible deadlines.

Beginner Level

Approximately 6 months to complete

Suggested pace of 3 hours/week

English

Could your company benefit from training employees on in-demand skills?

Try Coursera for Business

See how employees at top companies are mastering in-demand skills

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How the Specialization Works

Take Courses

A Coursera Specialization is a series of courses that helps you master a skill. To begin, enroll in the Specialization directly, or review its courses and choose the one you'd like to start with. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. It’s okay to complete just one course — you can pause your learning or end your subscription at any time. Visit your learner dashboard to track your course enrollments and your progress.

Hands-on Project

Every Specialization includes a hands-on project. You'll need to successfully finish the project(s) to complete the Specialization and earn your certificate. If the Specialization includes a separate course for the hands-on project, you'll need to finish each of the other courses before you can start it.

Earn a Certificate

When you finish every course and complete the hands-on project, you'll earn a Certificate that you can share with prospective employers and your professional network.

There are 5 Courses in this Specialization

Course1

Course 1

Computational Social Science Methods

4.7

stars

301 ratings

This course gives you an overview of the current opportunities and the omnipresent reach of computational social science. The results are all around us, every day, reaching from the services provided by the world’s most valuable companies, over the hidden influence of governmental agencies, to the power of social and political movements. All of them study human behavior in order to shape it. In short, all of them do social science by computational means.

In this course we answer three questions: I. Why Computational Social Science (CSS) now? II. What does CSS cover? III. What are examples of CSS? In this last part, we take a bird’s-eye view on four main applications of CSS. First, Prof. Blumenstock from UC Berkeley discusses how we can gain insights by studying the massive digital footprint left behind today’s social interactions, especially to foster international development. Second, Prof. Shelton from UC Riverside introduces us to the world of machine learning, including the basic concepts behind this current driver of much of today's computational landscape. Prof. Fowler, from UC San Diego introduces us to the power of social networks, and finally, Prof. Smaldino, from UC Merced, explains how computer simulation help us to untangle some of the mysteries of social emergence.

Course2

Course 2

Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics

4.6

stars

408 ratings

This course gives you context and first-hand experience with the two major catalyzers of the computational science revolution: big data and artificial intelligence. With more than 99% of all mediated information in digital format and with 98% of the world population using digital technology, humanity produces an impressive digital footprint. In theory, this provides unprecedented opportunities to understand and shape society. In practice, the only way this information deluge can be processed is through using the same digital technologies that produced it. Data is the fuel, but machine learning it the motor to extract remarkable new knowledge from vasts amounts of data. Since an important part of this data is about ourselves, using algorithms in order to learn more about ourselves naturally leads to ethical questions. Therefore, we cannot finish this course without also talking about research ethics and about some of the old and new lines computational social scientists have to keep in mind. As hands-on labs, you will use IBM Watson’s artificial intelligence to extract the personality of people from their digital text traces, and you will experience the power and limitations of machine learning by teaching two teachable machines from Google yourself.

Course3

Course 3

Social Network Analysis

4.7

stars

198 ratings

This course is designed to quite literally ‘make a science’ out of something at the heart of society: social networks. Humans are natural network scientists, as we compute new network configurations all the time, almost unaware, when thinking about friends and family (which are particular forms of social networks), about colleagues and organizational relations (other, overlapping network structures), and about how to navigate delicate or opportunistic network configurations to save guard or advance in our social standing (with society being one big social network itself). While such network structures always existed, computational social science has helped to reveal and to study them more systematically. In the first part of the course we focus on network structure. This looks as static snapshots of networks, which can be intricate and reveal important aspects of social systems. In our hands-on lab, you will also visualize and analyze a network with a software yourself, which will help to appreciate the complexity social networks can take on. During the second part of the course, we will look at how networks evolve in time. We ask how we can predict what kind of network will form and if and how we could influence network dynamics.

Course4

Course 4

Computer Simulations

4.5

stars

74 ratings

Big data and artificial intelligence get most of the press about computational social science, but maybe the most complex aspect of it refers to using computational tools to explore and develop social science theory. This course shows how computer simulations are being used to explore the realm of what is theoretically possible. Computer simulations allow us to study why societies are the way they are, and to dream about the world we would like to live in. This can be as intuitive as playing a video game. Much like the well-known video game SimCity is used to build and manage an artificial city, we use agent-based models to grow and study artificial societies. Without hurting anyone in the real world, computer simulations allow us explore how to make the world a better place. We play hands-on with several practical computer simulation models and explore how we can combine hypothetical models with real world data. Finally, you will program a simple artificial society yourself, bottom-up. This will allow you to feel the complexity that arises when designing social systems, while at the same time experiencing the ease with which our new computational tools allow us to pursue such daunting endeavors.

Instructor

Martin Hilbert

Professor and Chair DE Computational Social Science

Communication, Graduate Group Computer Science Chair Emphasis Computational Social Science

41,482 Learners

5 Courses

Offered by

University of California, Davis

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the refund policy?
If you subscribed, you get a 7-day free trial during which you can cancel at no penalty. After that, we don’t give refunds, but you can cancel your subscription at any time. See our full refund policy.
Can I just enroll in a single course?
Yes! To get started, click the course card that interests you and enroll. You can enroll and complete the course to earn a shareable certificate, or you can audit it to view the course materials for free. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. Visit your learner dashboard to track your progress.
Is financial aid available?
Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.
Can I take the course for free?
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free. If you cannot afford the fee, you can apply for financial aid.
Is this course really 100% online? Do I need to attend any classes in person?
This course is completely online, so there’s no need to show up to a classroom in person. You can access your lectures, readings and assignments anytime and anywhere via the web or your mobile device.
How long does it take to complete the Specialization?
This Specialization can take anyone 3-5 months to complete.
What background knowledge is necessary?
No background knowledge is necessary to work through this Specialization.
Do I need to take the courses in a specific order?
We highly encourage you complete the courses in the order specified as they do build on one another.
Will I earn university credit for completing the Specialization?
No, this specialization does not offer University credit.
Since this a collective effort from all UC campuses, who teaches it?
This Specialization is the result of a collective effort with contributions from Professors from all 10 campuses of the University of California. It is coordinated by Martin Hilbert, from UC Davis, and counts with lectures from:
1) UC Berkeley: Joshua Blumenstock, Prof. iSchool; Stuart Russell, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering.
2) UC Davis: Martin Hilbert, Prof., Dpt. of Communication & Seth Frey, Prof., Dpt. of Communication & Cynthia Gates, Director of the IRB.
3) UC Irvine: Lisa Pearl, Prof. Cognitive Sciences.
4) UC Los Angeles: PJ Lamberson, Assistant Prof. Communication Studies.
5) UC Merced: Paul Smaldino, Prof. Cognitive and Information Sciences.
6) UC Riverside: Christian Shelton, Prof. Computer Science.
7) UC San Diego: James Fowler, Prof. Global Public Health and Political Science.
8) UC San Francisco: Maria Glymour, Associate Prof. School of Medicine, Social Epidemiology & Biostatistics.
9) UC Santa Barbara: René Weber, Prof. Dpt. of Communication & Media Neuroscience Lab (with Frederic Hopp).
10) UC Santa Cruz: Marilyn Walker, Prof. Computer Science, Director, Computational Media.
What do students say AFTER COMPLETION?
"Highly enjoyable and most importantly, giving me exceptionally important skills to fulfill my job requirements at a new position in Munich. You may be interested to know the impact of your course on salary and in my case, the knowledge and certification gained adds about another Euro 20.000 on the annual salary (taking it to about Euro 120.000 p.a.)."
· "My overall impression of this was: I can't wait to use this for other stuff!!"
· "Best course I have taken. I wish more online courses structured like this would be offered."
· "The fact that these tools are so easily usable and attainable is incredible in my mind. Not only do we have access to them like we have access to things like Facebook and Twitter, but they're FREE."
· "I had previously attempted to learn Python but gave up because I thought that I wasn't capable of learning it, as I was so intimidated. Taking your course opened my eyes, not only regarding how useful it would be in my fields of study, but also by showing me that it's not so scary after all. I am now planning on spending my summer working on a Python project, and I am confident that I can do so. I also plan on taking more CS-centric courses in the future."
· "I absolutely think that these tools could be used in my future jobs, or even as a personal reflection. If you scrape and analyze the comments/reactions that your business gets on Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, etc., what does their language use say about how they interact with your brand — or what your brand brings out in them?"
· "Wow, this is cool and fun stuff. Even though I may not pursue anything social-science related in the near future, it is still nice to learn and get to experience all of these tools that computational social science offers and benefits in all kinds of careers and fields of study."
· "I did my MA in Social Work in India. I am trying to make a come-back in my field after a long career break. I had been hearing Big Data and Data Science everywhere and wondered if there is a link between these and Social Sciences. This specialization gave me needed answers and is helping me to gain very useful skills... Thank you so much for bringing this specialization. You are a very good instructor and made these courses are a smooth sail."
· "My career aspiration is to be a digital marketing expert. These computational tools have enormous implications for the field."
· "I particularly enjoyed the web-scraping for some reason. It feels very advanced although its very easy. ...It seems to be a very fast and efficient way of grabbing data."
· "I enjoyed playing around with machine learning! ...It was also amazing to me how quickly it was able to grasp and learn our input in seconds. It makes me wonder how much more technology will advance in these next few years... It's scary but fascinating."
· "The most interesting aspect was the fact that these tools are all free and online. In the past, only researchers at well-funded universities had access to programs like the ones we used in all of our labs. But now, even someone without much technical knowledge on complex software can use these tools."
· "I am so surprised that these tools are available to anyone through a simple download, and even more so that they are very user friendly and easy to learn how to navigate. I plan on starting a clothing line company in the future and I think it will be really helpful for me to be able to analyze so much online data."
· "As an Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning major, I was fascinated to learn that there is a feasible way to simulate policy implementation and impact multiple times within a short span of time."
· "UCCSS has allowed me to feel more confident in my abilities with a computer and to better understand companies like Facebook or Twitter. ...these tools really are powerful but also dangerous. ...It allows powerful individuals to manipulate ideas."
· "Throughout the course, the content was challenging, but when it was finally applied to the labs at the end of each module, it was really rewarding to see everything play out. It was even more rewarding when it made sense too! ... I'm really glad I took this course! It was definitely a challenge, but I'm glad I got to experience and learn about so many topics I never knew even existed."
· "It was fun seeing the results of the code that I made, and I never thought that I would be doing something like this in my life. The results also showed me what the society would look like.... Social network analysis and web scraping could be the tools that I use in my future job as all the internship that I'm looking now all related to social media or digital media."
· "I really really loved that this class let me learn hands-on and gave me experience with tools that have real world application and combine STEM & social science. I think that a lot of these tools are useful far beyond homework activities."

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Computational Social Science Specialization

What you will learn

About this Specialization

Applied Learning Project