William Christiansen, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science and international studies and associate director of the Office of Competitive Fellowships, discovered that his political science students were facing a stumbling block: computer science. A major that traditionally was removed from tech has become computation-heavy as the field increasingly turns coding and programming into data analytics—something that incoming social sciences majors typically are not prepared to do.
“For me, there was a steep learning curve when it came to programming, so I understand why so many political science majors struggle and end up leaving. But it seems like a tragedy to me that talented students would feel too intimidated or defeated to pursue a subject they’re passionate about,” shared Christiansen.
In response, he developed a suite of apps to help teach students data analysis and coding, and then applied for and won a Concept Grant from SAGE Publishing to fund a user-testing program he plans to call SAGE Fellows.
The grant will enable Christiansen to purchase the necessary equipment and provide stipends to around four students, the SAGE Fellows, who would use, test, and help refine the apps before he makes them available beyond the Mount. Additionally, he will be able to offer one-time stipends to students who use the apps for research in an Honors project, senior thesis, SPARC presentation, or any other relevant academic work.
“Ideally, I’d like to get four fellows from very different majors. Part of my goal with these apps and this program is to increase collaboration between the social sciences and computer sciences, especially as social science fields evolve. The fellows will be doing real work, meeting weekly to share their perspective,” Christiansen explained.
In total, he developed a suite of five Shiny web applications called educate_R. Each app performs a different data analysis task, such as data cleaning and preparation, analyzing trends in the data, and creating graphics with the data provided. Users can go a step further, however, and use the teaching features in the apps as tools to learn data science and coding themselves.
Eventually, Christiansen plans to revise the apps alongside the SAGE Fellows, using their observation and feedback, and release them for worldwide use.
In the meantime, “I’ll be learning alongside them,” Christiansen notes. “I’m elated about this opportunity, the chance to increase collaboration between social sciences and other departments and, hopefully, help more students stay in a major that they truly love.”
Students interested in learning more or becoming SAGE Fellows can contact Christiansen at w.t.christiansen@msmary.edu or visit his webpage. He soon plans to send out a recruiting email.