1Cademy Nodes for Deconfounding Analysis
The initial node titled "Eliminating Confounders," used for discussing methods to remove confounders, was created on March 15, 2020 by S9. In this node, S9 lists two methods, "back-door criterion" and "RCT", mentioned in "The Book of Why" that can be used for this purpose. The book later introduces the method of "front-door criterion" so on April 2, S10 proposes an improvement to this node which would then include "front-door criterion" in the list.
However, classifying the methods in this way may be confusing because even though the methods may be used for the same purpose, "RCT" is a distinctly different method and performed very differently than using the "back-door criterion" or "front-door criterion." On April 12, S11 proposes another improvement to this node which changed the title to now become "Eliminating Non-Measurable Confounder Variables" and restructured the content to have "RCT" and "observational studies" in the list and providing a brief clarification that the previously mentioned methods (in addition to "do-calculus") can be applied to the listed methods, stating in their proposal reasoning that "This update reflects the conversation from the 4/5 discussion. We update the title to discuss eliminating non-measurable confounders, and simplify the strategies into two: RCT and observational studies." By renaming the node and restructuring the content, S11 improved the initial node proposed by S9 by better categorizing the methods used and differentiating "RCT" from "back-door criterion" and "front-door criterion."
Although the information in the node was not necessarily wrong, the improvements made on the node allowed for a better understanding and organization of learning the content. This improvement showcases that peers can help improve clarification of details or framing of the information by making edits. Furthermore, this node showcases that this structure allows for discussion of how others learned and interpreted the information as S11 states, "this update reflects the conversation from the 4/5 discussion," which seems to have prompted the change.
0
0
Tags
CSCW (Computer-supported cooperative work)
Computing Sciences