The use of interactive electronic-books in the teaching and application of modern quantitative methods in the social sciences

当社会科学研究人员希望对一个具体问题进行研究时，如果他们选择量化的方法，他们将收集新的数据或现有的数据，并对这些数据进行统计分析。现代和速度更快、存储容量更大的计算机的影响导致了可以分析的更大的数据源。因此，对社会科学研究人员进行量化方法和使用统计计算机软件分析数据集和回答研究问题的培训变得越来越重要。现代统计技术也变得更加计算机化，因此需要软件工具来简化研究过程，同时仍然允许社会科学家使用最合适的统计方法。在这项建议中，我们建立在当前拨款工作的基础上，其中我们已经制作了一个交互式电子书(或电子书)系统的原型，用于学习统计技术和执行统计分析。一本电子书可以被认为是一本书和一个统计包的特征的结合，因为它包含文本信息、图表和表格的混合，但也包含输入框，当完成时，输入框根据所提供的输入来写出书的部分。我们打算调查新技术的适当性，以及如何使其适用于社会科学家通常执行的各种任务。我们将专注于三个具体的任务：1.协助研究人员完成对具有特定特征的数据集进行统计分析的各个阶段。帮助使研究人员的研究具有可重复性，以便其他研究人员可以重复，方法是允许研究人员将他们在出版物内进行的统计分析的全部细节与其工作产生的结果联系起来，并允许其他人与分析进行互动，从而使期刊文章得到改进。通过使用互动电子书，对社会科学研究人员进行新的定量研究方法和新的统计软件方面的培训。

When social science researchers wish to carry out research into a specific problem, if they choose a quantitative approach they will collect either new data or existing data and perform statistical analysis on this data. The modern age and the impact of faster computers with larger storage capacities has resulted in far larger data sources which can be analysed. It has become increasingly important therefore for social science researchers to be trained in quantitative methods and the use of statistical computer software to analyse datasets and answer research questions. Modern statistical techniques have also become more computational and so there is a desire for software tools that simplify the research process whilst still allowing social scientists access to the most appropriate statistical methods.In this proposal we build on work in a current grant in which we have prototyped an interactive electronic book (or eBook) system for learning about statistical techniques and performing statistical analysis. An eBook can be thought of as combining the features of a book with those of a statistical package as it contains a mixture of textual information, graphs and tables but also input boxes which when completed write sections of the book that are conditional on the inputs supplied.We intend to investigate the appropriateness of the new technology and how it may be adapted to be used for various tasks that are commonly performed by social scientists. We will focus on three specific tasks:1. Assisting the researcher while they work through the various stages of performing a statistical analysis for datasets with particular features.2. Helping to make the researchers research reproducible, so that other researchers could repeat it, by allowing the researcher to link full details of the statistical analysis that they have performed within the publication that results from their work and allowing others to interact with the analysis resulting in an enhanced journal article.3. Training social science researchers in new quantitative research methods and new statistical software through the use of interactive ebooks.