Social media applications have permeated all aspects of society, which means they provide readily available data that can be used for classroom and academic research projects. The SMART Lab staff collects several data sets on a weekly basis that cover important social events, topics and issues, all of which are available on our SMART Lab Research Hub.
The SMART Lab Research Hub also provides resources and videos that guide students through the research process. The aims of these training resources are to provide supplemental training information to students with whom faculty are working on research projects and to provide faculty with valuable training information they can use to expand their research repertoire. The hub is maintained by the SMART Lab staff but every professor has instructor access to the course shell so they can contribute by uploading resources related to their areas of expertise.
Faculty can also send their students to the lab to obtain one-on-one assistance from a member of our staff or, if needed, another faculty member with expertise that matches the student’s needs. Faculty can also request a tour of the Lab for their classes by contacting us at smartlab@radford.edu.
Faculty can also make requests for the lab’s staff to collect online data that are relevant to their respective disciplines and research areas. These requests can be submitted online with our SMART Lab Data Collection Form.