[Informatics] Codifying Data

[Garth, Lucas A]

Hi everyone

One way I’m explaining to my students is that they are most likely to find quantitative data sets that will produce its own information, but if they are looking to find the reason behind why then some quantitative data is most often required.

It’s often qualitative data that can explain why correlation is not always causation.

Of course, that all depends on where this data is coming from, and the quality of the data source.  But if you’re one of my students and you put forward a case with just quantitative data and don’t explore the reasons behind the data through some sort of qualitative questioning or research, then you’re not able to achieve the higher levels of the performance descriptors.

Lucas

From: informatics-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:informatics-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Mark
Sent: Wednesday, 17 May 2017 4:37 PM
To: Year 12 VCE Informatics Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Informatics] Codifying Data

But questions that are excessively tightly-structured become closed questions that constrain the freedom of the respondent to give new and valuable information that had not been known before about the hypothesis in question.

Qualitative info gathering is all about learning the subject from scratch; defining the main issues; finding out what is important about a new topic.
Quantitative info gathering is to do deeper mass-data research into pre-defined topics once the important criteria in the issue have been identified.

e.g. Why do people like to dance?

Firstly, qualitative info (interviews, observation) is gathered... e.g.

80% of people interviewed said they want to attract a mate.
10% said they wanted to lose weight.
5% said they were too drunk to know what they were doing.
3% said it allowed them to express their 'inner hippy'.
2% were incoherent.

... then more focused quantitative (surveys, questionnaires) research can be undertaken.

e.g.

- On a scale of 0 (never) to 5 (every time) how often do you dance to attract a mate? [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
- How important is dancing to you to lose weight? [Not at all?] [Somewhat?] [A lot?]
- Can you remember when you last danced? [In a blurry fashion?] [Who are you and why are you asking questions?] [I'm drunk. Want to dance?]
- Are you a hippy? [Tangerine, man] [Whoa! Lights!]
- Are you incoherent? [Boolean!] [Did you know all fish are Roman Catholic?] [Bookshelf, obviously!]

Data gathering is hard.

<ark
(How I type my name 70% of the time... now 71%)

On 17 May 2017 at 15:52, Robert Hind <robert at yinnar.com<mailto:robert at yinnar.com>> wrote:
Thanks for pointing out possible difficulties Mark :-)

This does explain why professional question askers always ask tightly structured questions with a limited range of answers - effectively you do your codifying beforehand.

Robert Hind
Ex Traralgon and Ashwood
Retired

________________________________
From: informatics-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:informatics-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:informatics-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:informatics-bounces at edulists.com.au>] On Behalf Of Mark
Sent: Wednesday, 17 May 2017 3:10 PM
To: Year 12 VCE Informatics Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Informatics] Codifying Data

On 17 May 2017 at 14:25, Robert Hind <robert at yinnar.com<mailto:robert at yinnar.com>> wrote:
SupaCreme Strawberry Delight ice-cream?" You examine all your responses and find they go all the way from

It made me vomit - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - to - - - - - - - - - - - - - I have never tasted anything so delicious

And the coding problem arises when a respondent says, "I had never tasted anything so delicious as that SupaCreme Strawberry Delight ice-cream, but then it made me vomit."

Coding is hard.

P.S. The verb should be "encoding" rather than "coding". But never mind. The study design rulez.

--

Mark Kelly

mark at vceit.com<mailto:mark at vceit.com>
http://vceit.com

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