PowerPointpresentasjon

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ESS EduNet http//essedunet.nsd.uib.no
Presentation at IASSIST 2006 Ann Arbor,
Michigan 05.22-26 Atle Jåstad, Norwegian Social
Science Data Services
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What is ESS EduNet?
Internet-based analysis training programme aiming
to facilitate and enrich access to empirical data
in the social sciences. The resource is
developed for use in higher education.
Theory
Data
Methodology

• Containing

• The ambition is to create a social science
  laboratory that combines the elements of social
  science to an integrated whole theory, data and
  methodology.

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The main components

• Texts written by two distinguished researchers

• Data of high quality From the European Social
  Survey (1st round)

ESS EduNet is designed to connect the two
components, and to stimulate to empirical data
analysis in higher education.
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Topics

• Social and political trust
• Written by Professor Kenneth Newton, Department
  of Politics, University of Southampton. Two
  theories of the origin of social trust are
  presented and assessed, and the relationship
  between political and social trust is outlined.

• Human values
• Written by Professor Shalom Schwartz, Department
  of Psychology, Hebrew
• University, Jerusalem. Schwartz theory on human
  values is presented, and
• it is illustrated how values can be used both as
  dependent as well as
• independent variables.

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Data

• Statistical data For online analysis or
  download. Each topic refers to a very limited
  subset of ESS data (round 1), carefully selected
  to focus on a manageable set of dependent and
  independent variables, including contextual
  data. Some variables are original ESS-variables,
  others are recoded or computed especially for the
  topics.
• Run-time NSDstat The users may download a
  run-time version of the statistical software
  NSDstat for later use, making it easy for
  institutions without any statistical software to
  make use of the website.
• Methodological glossary Short description of
  some key concepts.

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Online analysis
In ESS EduNet it is possible to browse and
analyse data and metadata online, and to download
data in many formats. The most important
features for online analysis are

• Frequency tables
• Descriptive statistics
• Multivariate cross tables
• Correlation
• Regression
• Thematic maps

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Other resources
User guide Contains Text on technical
requirements, about NSDstat and about weighting.
In addition there is an introduction on how to
analyse data online.
Discussion Is a forum where the users can
discuss theoretical or methodological questions.
About Short description of the ESS project and
the ESS EduNet.
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Just another online resource
As most web-sites, ESS EduNet aspires to be more
than just another online resource. But it is
difficult to ignite the enthusiasm of demanding
students and teachers. It is not sufficient to
offer relevant information, it is necessary to
wrap the information in a design that makes it
easy to find and utilise it. When we were
trying to figure out how we could minimise the
threshold for using ESS EduNet, we had to seek
inspiration outside the web-design community
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Design principles

• Keep each page as screen-readable as possible
• Keep navigation at a minimum
• Offer relevant information where needed

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Design example Mouseover

• Display information by pointing at elements in
  the text
• references
• footnotes
• keywords
• figures and tables
• For example When reference is made to a figure,
  it is not necessary to go back (troublesome
  navigation) or to insert the figure once more in
  the text (waste of space).
• Point the mouse cursor at the highlighted word,
  for example Figure 1.1.

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Design example Mouseover
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Design example Show/hide

• Display text only when needed
• solutions to exercises
• SPSS or NSDstat instructions
• particularly important information (weighting)
• For example If you are using SPSS, it is not
  necessary to read the instructions for NSDstat
  users.

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Design example Show/hide
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To work with ESS EduNet

• Each topic is divided into several chapters.
• One chapter equals, very roughly, one hour of
  work.
• Each chapter contains exercises with varying
• degree of difficulty.

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To work with ESS EduNet Research-like learning
The topics are designed to guide the users
through the research process from a theoretical
problem to the interpretation of statistical
results.
Theory
Operationalization
Interpretation of statistical result
Run analyses
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To work with ESS EduNet Example

• Read the theoretical introduction to get a
• better understanding of the topic

• Solve the exercises

• Create tables

• Get help if you need it

• Select a topic

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Advantages with this type of teaching package
Closeness to data
Easy to use
Research practice
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http//essedunet.nsd.uib.no