Understanding statistical concepts and essential tests

Description:

Introduction/Overview

Understanding key statistics and choosing an appropriate statistical test are an essential part of a quantitative researcher’s skill set. The course will provide a foundation in statistical concepts and testing options. After completing the course participants will have the tools to understand the statistics described in quantitative research papers and reports and be able to evaluate the appropriateness of each test for the data and research objective.

Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will:

• Have a good understanding of key statistical terms and concepts
• Understand the practical implications of descriptive versus inferential statistics
• Understand when to choose parametric or non-parametric testing approach
• Understand how, when and why confidence intervals are created for means and proportions
• Understand which analysis is best appropriate for the data and research aim
• Know how to use a range of statistics to evaluate the quality of research and strength of findings

Topics covered

• Overview of statistical terms and concepts
• Measures of central tendency and dispersion
• Confidence Intervals
• t-test
• Chi-square test of independence
• Overview of analysis considerations

Learning outcomes

• Participants will have a good understanding of statistics and their use in descriptive situations, in graphs and tables, and in basic hypothesis testing.
• Participants will be able to understand and evaluate results from descriptive analyses, t-tests and chi-square tests of independence.

Please note, statistical software packages are not taught in the course.

Who will benefit?

• Participants completely new to statistics with a keen interest in quantitative research
• Participants who have had some previous experience of statistics and would like to refresh and enhance their knowledge
• Participants with recent statistical experience, who have not been formally trained in quantitative research may also benefit as the course is also designed to fill holes in existing knowledge.

The course provides key knowledge in frequentist statistics that will serve as a foundation for building discipline-specific knowledge upon.

This course is suitable for anyone with an interest in quantitative research in the areas of social research, sociology, psychology, political science, and economic research.

Course tutor

Valerija Kolbas is a Senior User Support and Training Officer at the UK Data Archive within the secure data collections.Valerija is passionate about promoting research skills, encouraging data-driven decision-making and improving statistical literacy. She believes in ethical research and is using her experience to teach essential statistics and promote good research practice. Valerija has several years of experience in teaching research methods in higher education. In her current role, Valerija regularly delivers training for researchers on statistical disclosure control of sensitive data and legal responsibilities around data use. She develops training materials on conducting research using secondary data and methods of data preparation and analysis.

Valerija has worked on a number of projects collecting data for cohort, panel, and cross-national studies at every stage of data collection and dataset preparation. Valerija holds a PhD in Survey methodology from the Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex.

Cost:

£165 for SRA members, £220 for non-members

Website and registration:

Register for this course

Region:

International

Keywords:

Frameworks for Research and Research Designs, Data Collection, Data Quality and Data Management , Quantitative Data Handling and Data Analysis, Research Management and Impact, Research Skills, Communication and Dissemination

Related publications and presentations from our eprints archive:

Frameworks for Research and Research Designs
Data Collection
Data Quality and Data Management
Quantitative Data Handling and Data Analysis
Research Management and Impact
Research Skills, Communication and Dissemination

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