FAQs - #PSOSMonNPTEL

Questions
  1. What is the duration of the course?
  2. How many hours do I need to spend for the course?
  3. I did not understand some concepts in the lecture. Whom should I ask for clarification?
  4. I could not comprehend some sentences in the lecture videos. What should I do?
  5. Is this a course on hacking social media platforms?
  6. I am not from computer science background. Should I take up this course?
  7. Do I need to have prior knowledge of any technology?
  8. How will I benefit by taking up the course?
  9. What kind of practical sessions will be taught in the course?
  10. When will the assignments be available?
  11. Is there any discussion group or forum for this course on Facebook / Whatsapp?
  12. Why am I not able to access lecture videos for next weeks?


  1. What is the duration of the course? [Go to top]
    2.

    The course is 12 weeks long.

  2. How many hours do I need to spend for the course? [Go to top]
    3.

    This is a 20-hour course. Hence, it is expected from you to spend almost 100 minutes a week.

  3. I did not understand some concepts in the lecture. Whom should I ask for clarification? [Go to top]
    4.

    Please feel free to ask questions on the discussion forum embedded on the course portal. The Teaching assistants will be happy to answer your queries.

  4. I could not comprehend some sentences in the lecture videos. What should I do? [Go to top]
    5.

    Please refer to the text transcripts provided on the bottom of the video screen.

  5. Is this a course on hacking social media platforms? [Go to top]
    6.

    No. This is not a course on hacking. Though certain related topics such as phishing will be covered, this is not the intended focus of this course. But throughout the course, we in fact discuss the biggest vulnerability of entire online social media architecture - the user itself.

  6. I am not from computer science background. Should I take up this course? [Go to top]
    7.

    Anyone who uses the social media should take up this course. The course will cover key privacy and security issues from different OSM platforms which is relevant to every OSM user.

  7. Do I need to have prior knowledge of any technology? [Go to top]
    8.

    There are no hard prerequisites for the course. However, prior experience on Ubuntu and Python will be helpful.

  8. How will I benefit by taking up the course? [Go to top]
    9.

    After successfully completing the course, the participants will be able to:

    1. Understand the pitfalls of social media in terms of content floating in them.
    2. Understand how a user’s information publicly available on OSM can be exploited.
    3. Appreciate various privacy and security concerns (spam, phishing, fraud nodes, identity theft) on Online Social Media
    4. Collect data from OSM, analyze, and visualize the data

  9. What kind of practical sessions will be taught in the course? [Go to top]
    10.

    Almost every week there will be couple of tutorial videos. These tutorial videos will cover the following:

    1. Installing and setting up Ubuntu environment.
    2. Basics of ubuntu, python, mongodb and mysql
    3. Collecting, analysing and visualizing data from Facebook
    4. Collecting, analysing and visualizing data from twitter
    5. Using Highcharts for interactive visualization of data

    Apart from tutorials, some relevant research work in this domain will also be covered

  10. When will the assignments be available? [Go to top]
    11.

    The assignments will be available as soon as the course commences.

  11. Is there any discussion group or forum for this course on Facebook / Whatsapp? [Go to top]
    12.

    The forum embedded on the course portal is the ONLY official communication channel monitored by the Faculty coordinator and team and on which we will respond.

  12. Why am I not able to access lecture videos for next weeks? [Go to top]
    13.

    The lecture videos for consequent weeks will be uploaded as soon as the previous week finishes.