In light of new University guidance we have decided to cancel this event. We recognize
this is disappointing, so thanks for your understanding.
Georgie
On Mar 9, 2020, at 11:26 AM, Evans, Georgina
<georginaevans(a)g.harvard.edu> wrote:
Hi all,
Our next meeting will be Wednesday March 11, where Reagan Mozer will present research on
"New approaches for scaling-up human coding efforts in randomized trials with
text-based outcomes".
Abstract: Text data have a long history in social science and education research.
However, these data are notoriously high-dimensional and characterized by many nuances of
language that lack plausible statistical models. As a result, analysis of text data
typically involves intensive human coding tasks where particular constructs or features of
the text are first defined, and then a collection of documents are inspected and coded for
the presence or absence of these constructs. While this process may be feasible in studies
with smaller sample sizes, the time and resources required to train and employ multiple
human coders frequently poses a challenge for large-scale efforts. In this talk, I will
consider how to reliably and efficiently extract meaningful constructs from text documents
for the purposes of drawing causal inferences, with an emphasis on the context of
experimental studies where some outcomes of interest are features of text generated by the
trial’s participants. In particular, I will describe an approach that combines machine
learning and survey sampling methods to streamline the process of hand-coding in a way
that is automatically verified and validated. To illustrate the proposed methods, I will
present results from a pilot analysis of a randomized trial that used student-generated
essays to evaluate the impact of an educational intervention on students’ writing
abilities.
Where: CGIS Knafel Building, Room K354 (see this link
<https://map.harvard.edu/?bld=04471&level=9> for directions).
When: Wednesday, March 11 at 12noon - 1:30pm.
All are welcome and lunch will be provided.
Best,
Georgie