www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/ - UCLA Statistical Computing

http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/

I know that many of my student readers are beginning to utilize statistical software packages more as they enter into higher levels of their research process. One website that has been priceless for me as I learned how to use Stata was UCLA's Statistical Computing website. They offer so much detailed and useful information on a range of software packages, it would be hard to capture all of what they offer in this blog post. Here's an example of what they offer for SPSS:

When I was learning Stata, I found it extremely helpful to go to their Stata page and search for the command I was trying to learn. Here's an example. If you search for the Stata command "egen", here's what you'll find:

The site also offers educational resources for the classroom, including textbook examples. They also have links to prior workshops now available online: 

This resource is not to be overlooked even for the seasoned researcher, as it provides an easy to navigate refresher of common and not-so-common commands and analyses. Put it on your bookmarks list!

Text2mindmap.com - a quick and easy way to throw your ideas together

http://www.text2mindmap.com/

You know when you have a sudden brainstorming session, and you just need to map out your ideas quickly? Don't bother fumbling around with Power Point, use www.text2mindmap.com! This happened to me the other day. I went through several iterations of outlining, concept mapping, returning to outlining, staring at the page, and then it hit me. I needed to map out how my brain was conceptualizing the issue I was working on. I had a meeting in 15 minutes to discuss the issue, so I didn't have much time to work it out and make it all pretty in Power Point. After a quick Google search, I found this website!

It's very easy to use. Simply input your text to create main "nodes". Press tab to create sub-nodes. It only gives you different colors for three tiers deep, but it's at least useful for getting started on mapping out your brainstorm.

Simply type your text in the box on the left. Press tab to create sub-nodes.

Once you input your text, you can use your mouse to move the nodes around to create a visually appealing layout.

Drag and drop to move the nodes around.

It has lots of nice features like printing or saving as a PDF, saving for later, and plenty of font & color combinations to change the look and feel of the map.

Use options on the left to change colors and fonts.
Also use the save button or download option to make it printable.

One problem I encountered was that it was not taking my hierarchy properly, thus creating a mess of my nodes and sub-nodes. Through  my trouble-shooting efforts, I switched from using the Google Chrome browser to the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser, and the problem went away. So, if you encounter this problem, just use Internet Explorer.

Also, if you aren't familiar with mind mapping, check out www.mindmapping.com for examples, the theory behind mind mapping, and links to other related topics.

ICPSR - summer learning programs

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/sumprog/index.jsp

I attended a webinar hosted by the folks at ICPSR (the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) on their educational opportunities. The part I found most interesting, and applicable to my readers, was their summer learning series. They have seminars on almost every topic of quantitative data analysis you can imagine. So if you are a doc student who needs to learn (for example) about group-based modeling (or, "latent class growth analysis") you can attend a workshop by Daniel Nagin on that very topic! The workshops are pricey if you are a poor graduate student, but if you can find a way to pay for it, then you should definitely consider attending one of these specialized training opportunities for your dissertation analysis strategy. They also have workshops geared towards undergraduate and graduate students, so be sure to share this with your students. Head on over and check out the summer programs!

ICPSR - teaching & educational resources

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/instructors/index.jsp

Last month I attended a webinar hosted by ICPSR (the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research) which highlighted and explained the resources available to educators and students. As a social worker who loves research and education, I was excited to learn more about these resources! (You can watch the whole webinar on YouTube! Click here.)

The first exciting tool is the Data-driven Learning Guides (aka Short Exercises). These are meant for use in non-research-methods courses, usually for undergraduates. They will be helpful for introducing students to the utility and purpose of data. ICPSR advocates for introducing data earlier in the life of a college student rather than waiting until substantive years such as junior or senior year, because if students learn earlier on that data is a useful/meaningful tool, then perhaps fewer of them will abandon research knowledge in the future. All of the modules are standardized. ICPSR has made it so easy for any educator to use this resource: they have the following sections of information on each guide: goal and concept of that particular guide, the dataset, variables contained in the dataset, and ideas for application (which help students think about certain research questions, and has links to pre-made tables for the purpose of analysis).

The next tool is the Exercise Sets. These are more suited for students in research-focused classes. They provide a series of modules designed as a sequence to follow throughout a class rather than just for one assignment. One module uses Robert Putnam's book on social capital, Bowling Alone, which is very applicable to social work education.

The last tool is the Crosstab Assignment Builder (which is in beta-level development). According to the website, "The instructor selects an appropriate dataset and identifies relevant variables. The students can be given varying degrees of autonomy; instructors can designate placement of specific variables (row, column, control) or they can leave the choice up to students."

In addition to these great tools, the website also contains pages on: resources for students, videos on teaching, and external links. Be sure to browse through the full site so you can discover the full range of the wonderful resources available here!

Academia.edu - like Linked In

http://www.academia.edu

This website is becoming more and more popular as more folks embrace social media as a means of professional networking. On the site, you can create a profile with your current affiliation and position, post your publications, identify what areas of research you are interested in, and "follow" any other Academia.edu member (similar to "friend-ing" someone on Facebook or following someone on Twitter).

On your profile, you can add your CV. But that's not all! You can add specific sections to highlight your experience, such as talks/lectures, paper drafts, conference presentations, book reviews, and more. So, this seems like a similar features to Linked In, because you can specify your qualifications and experiences for colleagues and employers to see.

You can also use analytic tools (similar to Google Analytics) in order to find out how many times your page has been visited, how many unique visitors you've had, how many times your papers have been uploaded, and some other generic website stats. This could be useful during a job search, or if you are just curious about how many people in the Academia.edu world have clicked on your work! It's easy to start following your Facebook friends and Gmail contacts who also have profiles on Academia.edu. You simply import them during your account creation process.

I know that many of my readers don't have time to upload a profile or start a new social networking venture. But consider making a profile on this site... it literally only takes 5 minutes to set up, and then you can get e-mail notifications whenever someone interacts with your page, follows you, or wants to contact you. As a doctoral student, I know that networking is key in this stage of my career, and I'm sure many of you can relate!

So, create a profile. Then, follow me! :) Just click on this link:

Follow me on Academia.edu

Google analytics - Stalk in secrecy

http://www.google.com/analytics/

Thanks to the paid subscription provided to me by the VCU library system, I get access to subscription content of The Chronicle of Higher Education, which is an online periodical about topics related to higher education.  I signed up for weekly e-mails that pertain to my interests. One of the recently highlighted articles discussed how an academic job candidate created a website with his contact information, CV, and links to his publications, then started using Google Analytics to gain detailed information about who visited his website (Dunn, 2013).

Google analytics is yet another nifty tool provided by the Google universe that tracks information about visitors to your website. You can find out what seems like an endless amount of data about your site visitors, such as how they found your website, how much time they spent on your website, and what pages within your website they visited. The job candidate used it to track when visitors from a geographic location also matched up with schools at which he applied. So, once he submitted an application to a potential employer, he could watch out for when he got 17 visitors from the same locality, and assume that it was a department or school reviewing his application materials.

I'm not on the job market yet, but I can imagine how stress-inducing the process is when you don't even know if your application has been reviewed. Of course, not every potential employer will look at your website, and also you never know why they might be visiting, but at least you have an idea of what's going on behind the scenes.

So, to test it out for you, my readers, I added Google Analytics tracking to my blog. It's pretty interesting! (Says the quantoid.) One of my posts had visitors from Richmond, Charlotte, and Davidson. I can tell you that it is not extremely user friendly for a novice webmaster. But if you are savvy enough to create a website, you can  figure out how to use this tool. Even if you can't create your own website, you certainly don't need to know HTML or other coding languages in order to use this, but the part that was difficult for me was navigating through the website itself. It was difficult for me to find even the simplest features. But when I did, it was easy to add the tracking code to my blog. But, proceed with caution.

As a note, for those at VCU, if you want to view the original article, you must either access it from a university computer (or your computer that is connected to the VCU wifi), or you  must log in remotely and use the proxy connection from home, because it's subscription-only access.




Dunn, S. (2013, Feb 18). Some job candidates watch a potential employers' every click. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/article/Some-Job-Candidates-Watch-a/137355/

BookFinder4u.com - No really, that's all there is to it

http://www.bookfinder4u.com/

For those of us who want to buy really expensive books about concepts and theories and propositions and prepositions... and who also happen to be poor doctoral students, this website is a wonderful time-saver and penny-saver! It searches multiple book seller websites and finds the best price. That isn't my favorite feature of the website, though. If you are anything like me, you know that there are books out there that you'd like to buy, but can't right now. It will save your wishlist, and you can set a price alert so that when the price (total + shipping) is lower than a price you set you will get an e-mail notification. Another feature I like is that the website is clean and has no ad's or filler material. I also find it helpful to look at user reviews of booksellers that I'm not familiar with so that I can start to get an idea of whether it's a trustworthy seller. It also searches for out of print books for you history buffs out there :).

So, head on over www.bookfinder4u.com and create a free account so you can find and save money on the books of your dreams!