Courses

Curious how data can change policy and everyday life? In this course, you’ll learn statistics you can actually use in policy science. We start with simple ideas—how to spot real change versus random ups and downs—and build up to practical tools. For instance, if your fieldwork introduces an intervention, can we show that local behavior truly changed? Using survey data, you’ll run hypothesis tests that separate signal from noise. When many factors are in play—region, temperature, rainfall—what really drives wine quality and price, and by how much? You’ll learn to unpack those effects with modern modeling. And you’ll see why the news can project winners on election night before every ballot is counted.

After the concepts, we go hands-on with statistical software: cleaning data, building models, checking what the numbers mean, and telling the story with clear visuals. Classes are lively and interactive—short prompts, quick debates, and try-it-now demos—because the best way to learn is to use the tools.

Although statistics is a mathematical field, we keep the math light and focus on intuition you can feel. We also touch on data-mining methods and real case studies. By the end, you’ll be ready to turn messy social data into evidence that helps communities and informs better decisions.