Peek Over the Fence—How to Introduce Students to Computational Social Sciences

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to present an idea on how to introduce students of social sciences to computational approach. We discuss why there is a need to develop computational education in the social sciences and why it is a challenge. We consider barriers related to students and to academic teachers. Then we present the idea on how to help overcome those barriers. Within the project Action for Computational Thinking in Social Sciences we plan to set up a MOOC program on social computation at an introductory level. The program is addressed to learners of social sciences (mostly bachelor level) who often experience high levels of anxiety when it comes to mathematics, computers and formal modeling and have no working knowledge of advanced algebra, mathematical analysis, programming etc., but it is open for larger audience. We aim at providing them with a series of short introductory courses that will give them an opportunity to peek over this fence built of fears, stereotypes and lack of practice. We want to show the learners that computational approach to social sciences is, first, worthwhile, as it provides a new angle to look at societal phenomena and, second, accessible, if only approached from the story side rather than from the mathematical formulas side. We hope this will encourage the learners to engage in more demanding courses or, at minimum, approach the computational social sciences with a better general understanding.