Class Schedule

Class: Tuesday / Thursday, 1:25-2:40pm

Office Hours:

• Nick: Thursday, 9-10am, https://duke.zoom.us/my/nickeubank or Gross Hall 231

• Katie: Tuesday 9-10am https://duke.zoom.us/j/7696790306

• Keon: Wednesday 3-4pm https://duke.zoom.us/j/97104029366

• Gunel: Thursday 3-4pm https://duke.zoom.us/j/95439693004

Texts Used

This course will make use of readings from a handful of different sources. The main four, in order of the amount they will be used, are:

• DS4H: Data Science for Humans (This website, free.)

• Cunningham: Causal Inference Mixtape ($30 new, $20 used. Online Access through Duke Library)

• KTX: Trustworthy Online Controlled Experiments: A Practical Guide to A/B Testing ($40 new, $30 used.)

• GHV: Regression and Other Stories ($40. Too new to have used versions.)

Date	Topic	Do Before Class	In Class
Th Jan 9	Course Overview	Nothing	Discuss logistics and structure
Tu Jan 14	Solving Problems by Answering Questions	Read, sign, submit syllabus on gradescope. How to Read Chpt 1 Whenever I list a Chpt number, you may assume it includes all subparts unless I say otherwise. So this includes all three big idea subsections.	Questions Ex
Th Jan 16	Stakeholder Management	Chpt 3 Why It’s Important To Get Your Question Right (30 min video) Chpt 4	Stakeholder Ex
Tu Jan 21	Prescriptive v. Descriptive Questions	Chpt 2 Chpt 5
Th Jan 23	Descriptive Questions: Purpose, Internal and External Validity	Chpt 6 Chpt 7	Team Project
Tu Jan 28	Teams 1	What Project Aristotle Learned Edmondson, The Fearless Organization, Chpt 1 (on Canvas) Problem and Questions Due	Debrief Ex
Th Jan 30	Teams 2	Review Team Charter Assignment Edmondson, Teaming, Chpt 2 (on Canvas) Optional: Fostering Psychological Safety Tips	Team Report
Tu Feb 4	Descriptive Questions: Internal Validity Concerns	Chpt 8	Exploratory Ex
Th Feb 6	Passive Prediction Questions: Purpose, Internal Validity 1	Chpt 9 Chpt 10 Chpt 11 ONLY FIRST READING, not Fairness	Passive P Ex
Tu Feb 11	Passive Prediction Questions: Internal Validity 2	Chpt 11 Fairness Section	Car Buyer
Th Feb 13	Passive Prediction Questions: External Validity	Chpt 12 Exploratory Report Due	Feedback
Tu Feb 18	Passive Prediction Questions: Interpretability	Chpt 13 Giving Feedback Feedback Memos Should Be Shared by Midnight on 18th Optional but fun!
Th Feb 20	SNOW DAY
Tu Feb 25	Feedback Class	Read feedback provided to your team. Be prepared to discuss.	Discuss Feedback
Th Feb 27	Causal Questions: Purpose	Using Causal Questions Answering Causal Questions
Tu Mar 4	Causal Questions: Potential Outcomes	Potential Outcomes Framework Evaluating Real Studies Optional: Read Chpt 4 in Cunningham from start (different presentation of potential outcomes). Note that Cunningham uses the term Simple Difference in Outcomes (SDO) instead of $widehat{ATE}$ (the term I use). They are perfectly interchangable.	Ex
Th Mar 6	Causal Questions: Potential Outcomes	Cunningham, Chpt 4, pp 135 (“Independence Assumption”) - 148 (Stop at “Randomization Inference”) Indicator Variables	Ex
Tu Mar 11	NO CLASS
Th Mar 13	NO CLASS
Tu Mar 18	Causal Questions: Experiments in Practice, Internal Validity	Experiments: Internal Validity (In Practice): KTX: Chpt 2 (End to End Example) KTX: Chpt 3, “Threats to Internal Validity” (p. 42-47) KTX: Chpt 19 (A/A Testing)	Ex
Th Mar 20	Causal Questions: Experiments in Practice, External Validity	Overall Evaluation Criteria: KTX Chpt 7. Finishing Internal Validity: Different Randomizations: KTX Chpt 22 Experiments: External Validity (In Practice): Chpt 15, Experiments and External Validty KTX, Chpt 3, “Threats to External Validity” to end (p. 47-54) Kohvai, Tang and Xu, Chpt 23 (Primacy Effects / Long Term Decay)	Ex
Tu Mar 25	Causal Questions: Experiments in Practice, Design	Designing Experiments Statistical Power and Sample Sizes: GHV Ch 16 Don’t stop experiments early!	Ex
Th Mar 27	Causal Questions: Experiments in Practice, P-Value Interpretation	Statistical Decision Theory (on Canvas). 550-556 (This is same as IDS 705 Lecture 8 Reading) Assessing Statistical Results: Magnitude, Precision, and Model Uncertainty	Causal Report
Tu Apr 1	AB Testing Review
Th Apr 3	Causal Questions: Regression	Causal Beyond Experiments Angrist and Pischke, Mastering Metrics, Chpt 2	Ex
Tu Apr 8	MIDTERM	MIDTERM
Th Apr 9	Causal Questions: Matching	The Why of Matching The How of Matching Summary Methods for Matching Watch the video above from about 15 minutes in (where link starts) till at least 45 minutes in, keep going if you want to learn about propensity score matching problems.	Ex
Tu Apr 15	Causal Questions: Differences and Differences / Panels	Cunningham, Chpt 9 pp 406 (Difference in Differences) - pp 433 (Stop at “Importance of Placebos in Diff-in-Diff”) -(Book page numbers at bottom of PDF on canvas. Full chapter is in PDF, more than you need to read.) Optional but encouraged: (dont need to follow everything, but here’s a real diff-in-diff) Enfranchisement and Incarceration Diff-in-Diffs at Netflix	Ex
Wed, April 23	x	Optional Due Date for Causal Rough Draft (11pm)	x
Wed, Apr 30	x	Final Causal Report Due	x