279: Applied Data Science
Course Description
Data Science for Psychologists (DS4P) introduces the principles of data science, including data wrangling, modeling, visualization, and communication. In this class, we link those principles to psychological methods and open science practices by emphasizing exploratory analyses and description, rather than confirmatory analyses and prediction. We’ll work our way thru Wickham and Grolemund’s R for Data Science text (http://r4ds.had.co.nz/) and develop expertise in tidyverse (https://www.tidyverse.org/). This class emphasizes replication and reproducibility. DS4P is a practical skilled-based class and should be useful to students aiming for academia as well as those interested in industry. Applications of these methods can be applied to a full range of psychological areas, including perception (e.g, eye-tracking data), neuroscience (e.g., visualizing neural networks), and individual differences (e.g., valence analysis).
Required Materials
All materials for this course are open source, including the multimedia course notes.
- Garrison’s Data Science for Psychologists (https://datascience4psych.github.io/DataScience4Psych/)
- Wickham and Grolemund’s R for Data Science text (http://r4ds.had.co.nz/)
Course Assignments
You will be formally evaluated in four different ways (Labs, Portfolio, Engagement, Reflection) Instructions for the assignments can be found in the course notes.
Labs
There is (at least) one lab available per module. You can find the modules in the course notes.
Portfolio
The major semester projects (described on the data science website) are a set of DS4P Projects, which you will summarize in a DS4P Portfolio to be handed in on the last day of class. Instructions for the portfolio can be found in the course notes.
Engagement
This experiential course requires active engagement. There will be few lectures and we will not be building toward an exam. Instead, we will work together to build our facilities for thinking critically about data. You should come to every class having read all of the required reading, watched the required videos, browsed the suggested resources, and so forth. You should enter the classroom prepared to discuss these materials with colleagues and complete both individual and group in-class assignments.
Reflection and Summary
You will write a final contract summary and reflection in addition to the final portfolio.
- The contract summary must list and link to each deliverable, identify completion dates, explain which work fulfills which contract requirements, and provide evidence of consistent work across the semester.
- The grade reflection must explain the grade the student believes they earned based on the approved contract, the work completed, and the evidence provided in the summary. Because the highest available contract grade is an A-, students who believe they have earned an A must explain what work was exceptional enough to justify an upward adjustment beyond the contracted grade.
- The reflection must also discuss what the student learned throughout the semester, including how their understanding, skills, work habits, or goals developed through the course.
Grading Policy
In this course, you will determine the grade you receive by fulfilling a contract you will submit for my approval by 01/24 (a.k.a the end of the 2nd week of class).
Your written contract will detail:
The requirements you will meet in order to receive the grade for which you’ve contracted,
the penalties you will incur for not meeting those requirements,
a calendar you will follow for meeting the requirements you have outlined.
Many aspects of this calendar will be determined by milestones outlined on the course schedule, but your contract will take ownership of these deadlines while committing to specific due dates for the course’s more flexible assignments.
Contract Details
To fulfill any grade contract a student must do the following, which should nonetheless be specified in the contract submitted for approval. When writing self-assessments students must describe how they have met these requirements in addition to the grade-specific requirements:
Come to class prepared to discuss any assigned readings, videos, or other media. Participate actively in class activities and discussions, making observations and asking questions that help the class think together.
Work consistently throughout the semester. Consistent work means making regular, visible progress on contractual assignments according to the calendar in the approved contract, rather than completing most of the work at the end of the semester. For work submitted through GitHub or other version-controlled platforms, commit history may be used as one form of evidence of sustained progress. For other assignments, drafts, submissions, revision history, check-ins, and other records of work may be used as evidence.
Communicate with me in a timely way if you are unable to follow the calendar in your approved contract. Communication does not automatically amend the contract, but it allows us to discuss whether an adjustment is needed.
Meet with me synchronously during office hours or another scheduled time at least once around midterm, roughly between weeks 3 and 4, to ensure you are on track to meet your contract requirements, discuss any questions or concerns you have about the course or your progress, and decide on any necessary contract amendments.
Revise contractual assignments as necessary until both you and I consider them “Satisfactory.”
Complete a final grade reflection and contract self-assessment, submitting it to me by 5pm on the last day of class.
The professor reserves the right to award a grade of D or F to anyone who fails to meet a contractual obligation in a systematic way. A “D” grade denotes some minimal fulfilling of the contract. An “F” is absence of enough satisfactory work, as contracted, to warrant passing of the course. Both a “D” and “F” denote a breakdown of the contractual relationship implied by signing any of the contracts described above.
What About Exceptional (or Mediocre) Work?
I also reserve the right to reward exceptional work throughout the semester using the full range of Wake Forest’s grading scale. If you contract for a “A-,” for instance, and submit particularly strong pieces to fulfill that contract, I may elect to raise your contracted grade to a “A.”
Likewise, if you consistently submit mediocre work in fulfillment of your contract, I reserve the right to adjust your grade one half-step down (e.g. from “A-” to “B+“) or even, in extreme cases, a full step.
Contract Adjustments
Periodically during the semester I will ask you to evaluate your work thus far and compare it against what you agreed in your grade contract. In these moments you can also take the opportunity to request an adjustment to your contract in either direction. If you find that you will be unable to meet the obligations of your contract, including the calendar and consistent-work expectations, you may request to move to the next lowest grade and its requirements. Contrariwise, if you find that you’ve been performing above the obligations of your contract, you may request to fulfill the requirements for the next higher grade.
Contract adjustments must be discussed while there is still time to make a meaningful change to the work plan. Communication about difficulty, delays, or workload is important, but it does not by itself change the terms of the contract. Any change to the contract must be discussed with me and approved.
Important Note: In order to effectively evaluate your own progress, you must keep track of your work, including days missed, delayed assignments, revisions, and other evidence of progress toward the contract.
“A-” Contract
To contract for an “A-” in this course, you agree to:
Earn “Satisfactory” on 7 self-paced lab assignments on a schedule you will specify in your contract.
Produce at least 6 “Satisfactory” portfolio pieces over the course of the semester.
Compile those portfolio pieces into a “Satisfactory” Portfolio.
Submit a final contract summary and reflection in addition to the final portfolio.
For your planning, this works out to be approximately, 1.86 per week.
“B” Contract
To contract for a “B” in this course, you agree to:
Earn “Satisfactory” on 6 self-paced lab assignments on a schedule you will specify in your contract.
Produce at least 5 “Satisfactory” portfolio pieces over the course of the semester.
Compile those portfolio pieces into a “Satisfactory” Portfolio.
Submit a final contract summary and reflection in addition to the final portfolio.
For your planning, this works out to be approximately, 1.57 per week.
“P” Contract
To contract for a “P” or Pass in this course, you agree to:
Earn “Satisfactory” on 5 self-paced lab assignments on a schedule you will specify in your contract.
Produce at least 4 “Satisfactory” portfolio pieces over the course of the semester.
Compile those portfolio pieces into a “Satisfactory” Portfolio.
Submit a final contract summary and reflection in addition to the final portfolio.
For your planning, this works out to be approximately, 1.29 per week.