Computer-Assisted Qualitative Methodology is part of an innovative academic field that has been widely debated since 2003. This academic orientation is associated with the Digital Humanities field. The capabilities of computers combined with the digital skills of new researchers have made the Qualitative methodological way more effective. They encourage students’ digital literacy in the social and political sciences. This course enriches the basic Qualitative Research techniques that students have learned within the scope of the introductory course on Qualitative Methodology. As reflected in the title, it aims to focus on the possibilities of the computational processing of data resulting from a qualitative methodological orientation. This way it can bring the social and political field in a dialectical relation with technology and innovative social research. A digital qualitative orientation can be productive in analysing media content (from both traditional and new media). Students can choose the most suitable methodological path and effectively merge more than one orientations in their assignments.

The course aims at acquainting students with recent contemporary theoretical approaches and methodological orientations developed over the last two decades in academia and, more specifically, in the field of social and political studies. After the completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Understand advanced methodological investigations.
2. Develop innovative and creative research ideas and approaches focusing on Digital Studies and Qualitative Research.
3. Adequately navigate within the terrains of the Digital Era and digital studies with emphasis on Cybernetics.
4. Use advanced methods developed recently, such as Arts-Based social research, gamification, quality experiments, and digital ethnography.
5. Develop their own methodological orientation and have the ability to apply merged methodological approaches based on contemporary literature and the digital experience.
6. Design research project proposals adopting a critical, reflexive attitude towards their own investigative tools and materials.