1. Online course
Political Analytics
Taught by Ken Strasma
(http://www.statistics.com/political-analytics/)
Aim of Course:
This course, Political Analytics, will teach you how to apply predictive modeling methods
to target voters in political campaigns. You will learn which aspects of campaigns are
especially important for modeling purposes, and the difference between traditional
targeting methods and more recent micro-targeting techniques. The course covers what
to measure and how to design surveys to measure it. The role of experiments is
discussed, and you will learn how television advertising, online advertising, and social
media fit in.
Who Should Take This Course:
Data analysts who are familiar with predictive modeling and want to learn how to apply
it in the political world. Political consultants and staff who have had some exposure to
predictive modeling, and want to dive deeper and learn how it is applied in a political
campaign.
Course Program:
Course outline: The course is structured as follows
WEEK 1: Background and basic campaign concepts
 Why campaigns need to target
 Phases of a campaign
 Finding the right targets for the right phase
 Calculating the effectiveness of a voter contact
WEEK 2: Traditional targeting vs. individual level modeling and beginning the
modeling process
 Traditional targeting
 Microtargeting - shifting the focus to the individual
 Deciding what to predict
 Survey instrument design
 The modeling process
WEEK 3: The modeling process in detail
 Common pitfalls
 Missing values
 Building new indicators
 Evaluating models
 Combining models
WEEK 4: Advanced modeling concepts and the future of political targeting
 Ask, observe and test

2. 
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Controlled and natural experiments
Targeting for broadcast television
Targeting for online advertising
Software:
To do the exercises in the course you will need access to and some familarity with data
mining software. The instructor and TA's are familiar with R, and the TA's are familiar
with XLMiner, which is an Excel add-in for data mining. R is free, and XLMiner will be
made available at no charge to course participants
Instructor:
Mr. Ken Strasma, the instructor, is co-founder and CEO of HaystaqDNA, a firm that
provides predictive analytics and strategic consulting services for corporations, nonprofits and membership organizations.
Strasma served as targeting director for John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, and
for President Obama's 2008 campaign. Through his firm Strategic Telemetry, Strasma
produced the predictive analytics models used by the campaigns, and helped popularize
the use of that technology.
Since 2008, Strasma has consulted on hundreds of political and corporate projects in the
United States and internationally. HastaqDNA clients include multiple Fortune 500
companies with a combined market capitalization of more than $600 billion. Haystaq
commercial clients span the worlds of entertainment, sports, consumer goods and
healthcare. Haystaq has provided predictive analytics in international political
campaigns in four continents.
Ken is the author of numerous articles and studies regarding targeting, marketing,
demographics and social media analysis.
This course takes place over the internet at the Institute for 4 weeks. During each course
week, you participate at times of your own choosing - there are no set times when you
must be online. The course typically requires 15 hours per week. Course participants will
be given access to a private discussion board so that they will be able to ask questions
and exchange comments with instructor, Mr. Ken Strasma. The class discussions led by
the instructor, you can post questions, seek clarification, and interact with your fellow
students and the instructor.
We, the Center for eLearning and Training (C-eLT), Pune, partner with Statistics.com and
offer these courses to Indian participants at special prices payable in INR.
For India Registration and pricing, please visit us at www.india.statistics.com.
Email: info@c-elt.com
Call: +91 020 6680 0322
Websites:
www.india.statistics.com
www.c-elt.com