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Working with numbers and data

General statistics

The Academic Skills Team does not offer one-to-one appointments for statistics support, apart from with Qualtrics.

We do have a number of resources available below that you may find useful. If you need any further help, it is suggested that you check the learning materials on Blackboard in the first instance to see if there is any guidance available there. Alternatively contact your tutor, supervisor or Module Leader to find out what assistance may be available departmentally.

A range of statistics resources can be found at statstutor.

Qualtrics

About Quatrics

Qualtrics is an online survey tool available to all students.  With Qualtrics you can create surveys for use in assignments, research projects and more. You can distribute survey anonymously or to specific people vai email.  

There are a wide variety of reports available within Quatlrics to analyse the data you collect, including the ability to filter results by specific responses or groups of respondents  You can also export data for further analysis in applications such as Excel or SPSS.

Qualtrics is easy to use but has excellent in-built help and tutorials so you can learn to use all the features you need. We also have  guides to help you get started: 

Appointments

One-to-one appointments about Qualtrics can be booked with Julie Adams using the links in the box on the left.

SPSS

SPSS is a computer application that provides statistical analysis of data. It allows for in-depth data access and preparation, analytical reporting, graphics and modelling.  

SPSS Statistics is provided free of change for students (excluding overseas partners) for the duration of your time at University of Staffordshire. To find out more information and download your copy please visit Software Downloads.

 

SPSS videos, guides and tutorials:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/spss-statistics/29.0.0

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/pdfs/SPSS_Brief_Guide_21.pdf

https://www.spss-tutorials.com/

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL25257A24840423AE

 

Textbooks on SPSS

Excel

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program that allows you to:

  • Store, organise and analyse data
  • Perform calculations
  • Convert data to charts and graphs
  • Generate pivot tables

If you need help with using Excel, Microsoft Support provides a range of training resources:

 

Microsoft Office 365 is provided free of change for students (excluding overseas partners) for the duration of your time at University of Staffordshire, and can be installed on up to five different devices.  To find out more information and download your copy please visit Software Downloads.

Textbooks on Excel

R

R is a software package for statistical computing and graphics that includes:

  • data handling and storage facilities
  • a wide range of statistical techniques (linear and non-linear modelling, time series analysis, clustering etc.)
  • graphical facilities for data analysis

R is available for free under the terms of the Free Software Foundation’s GNU General Public License in source code form. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms and similar systems (including FreeBSD and Linux), Windows and MacOS.

For more information and to download R please visit The R Project for Statistical Computing.

If you require additional help to use R, please refer to The R Project's online support pages:

Textbooks on R