Social Network Analysis | Mohammed Saqr

Credits: 5 ECTS
When: Spring semester
Where: University of Eastern Finland
Who can join: UEF students, exchange students & students from Finland (contact enrollment for details)

Course Details on Peppi

A hands-on course where students not only analyze networks but build their own — from data collection to visualization and interpretation.

Overview

This course introduces students to the paradigm of network science and its application across multiple domains. Students learn to think relationally — understanding phenomena not as isolated entities but as interconnected systems of relationships. The course covers the theoretical foundations of network analysis alongside practical skills for analyzing and visualizing networks using R.

What You Will Learn

The course spans the fundamentals of network science:network metrics (centrality, density, reciprocity, clustering), community detection, network visualization techniques and transition networks. Students work with diverse types of networks — social, collaboration, knowledge, and information networks — drawn from education, social media, and other domains.

Format

The course combines lectures with practical sessions where students analyze real network datasets. The centerpiece is a course project where students collect their own network data, analyze it using the methods learned in class, and present their findings. Assessment is based on practical assignments, the network analysis projects, and presentations. No final exam.

Who Should Take This Course

The course is open to University of Eastern Finland students and exchange students. It is suitable for anyone interested in understanding relational structures in data — whether in education, social sciences, health, or technology. Basic familiarity with R is helpful but not strictly required.