Short Bio
Francisco Freitas is a sociologist who studied natural and technological risks and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). His special interests are in the field of quantitative and qualitative research methods. He has been implementing and conducting computer-assisted analyses of qualitative and quantitative data for years in a variety of research projects. Currently he is a full researcher at the ALICE Project, an international project hosted at CES-UC and funded under an Advanced Grant of the European Research Council.
[http://www.ces.uc.pt/investigadores/cv/francisco_freitas.php]
[http://www.maxqda.com/lang/portuguese]
Prerequisite knowledge
Note from the Academic Convenors to prospective participants: by registering to this course, you certify that you possess the prerequisite knowledge that is requested to be able to follow this course. The instructor will not teach again these prerequisite items. If you doubt whether you possess that knowledge to a sufficient extent, we suggest you contact the instructor before you proceed to your registration.
Core prerequisite items:
Software and technical: competence in PC usage (NB: Windows OS or Linux OS). Prior knowledge of database management is a must.
Conceptual: basic knowledge of descriptive statistics (i.e. measures of central tendency and measures of variability or dispersion)
Short course outline
This course is intended to offer a first contact with a branch of information technology that is widespread and can offer strong support to research activities in political science or related fields. Researchers or other practitioners will be invited to test tools made to conduct spatial analysis and/or mapping, whereas having the change to connect the tools to more traditional research methodologies. With the usage of Google Maps, Tableau Software and Quantum GIS, there will be space for the representation of georeferenced data, to learn how to georeference personal research data and, more importantly, to learn how to perform statistical calculations using a GIS package. This course must address in detail a key GIS feature that is extremely important for social sciences in general: convenience to manage effectively the variables time (i.e. changes across time) and space (i.e. the distribution of phenomena through a territory).
Instructor Bio
Francisco Freitas is a researcher who studied, sociology, natural and technological risks and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) at the Universities of Coimbra and Aveiro.
Alongside his research activities, he collaborates with Verbi GmbH in the development of the Portuguese version of MAXQDA.
For many years, Francisco has worked on research projects on which he uses his extensive experience in the fields of research methods, data collection and analysis, including the activities of georeferencing, mapping, and spatial analysis.
Francisco has worked regularly as a software instructor and research methods lecturer in several countries.
His current research interests encompass big data, digital research methods, and advanced analytics.
Francisco is a certified MAXQDA instructor.
