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Introduction to Statistics without Maths: Combining Data

Delve further into the world of inferential statistics by learning about combined data, from cleaning data to factor analysis.

Picture of some data graphs

Introduction to Statistics without Maths: Combining Data

  • 2 weeks

  • 3 hours per week

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Introductory level

Find out more about how to join this course

Discover hidden patterns in data, enhancing your insights and decision-making

Whether you’re a biologist or an economist, the ability to comprehend, interpret, and derive insights from complex datasets is fundamental for many roles.

Join this online course from the University of Lincoln to develop a deeper understanding of combining data from multiple sources on a conceptual and practical level.

In just three weeks, you’ll gain advanced techniques and tools to support you in making comprehensive analyses and informed decisions, allowing you to tackle real-world data challenges.

Transform your data by organising and combining variables

You’ll begin this course by learning how to clean your data and create strategies for what to do if missing values exist. As the course progresses, you’ll explore how data transformation works and the methods for rescaling variables.

Master advanced statistical techniques, including factor and reliability analysis

When combining data, it’s often helpful to perform reliability analysis. This will help you assess the underlying structure and data consistency, ensuring reliability and quality before integration.

You’ll finish this course by learning how to reduce data through factor analysis and principal component analysis.

Learn from the University of Lincoln’s Experts on Statistics

The University of Lincoln’s experts on Statistics has developed innovative approaches to teaching statistical concepts, including courses that do not require learners to have extensive maths backgrounds. They will be there to guide you throughout this course.

Once you’ve finished this course, you can consider joining the next course from the University of Lincoln: Learn Descriptive Statistics without Maths: Regressions.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 2 seconds Welcome to the Statistics without Maths courses. These are four courses where we’ll teach you fundamental statistic concepts and techniques to bring data to life so that you can make sense of it and that you can explain the findings to others in an easy way. For this course you won’t need any maths. To introduce myself, I’m Doctor Joshua Skoczylis. I’m a senior lecturer in criminology and counter terrorism and I’ve been teaching statistics and quantitative methods for over a decade now. My name’s Scott Kidd and I’m an Associate Lecturer and Researcher in criminology and psychology. My name is John Abiodun Babalola. I’m a PhD student of University of Lincoln, Associate Lecturer in the department of Criminology.

Skip to 0 minutes and 44 seconds I’m teaching quantitative analysis because of the fact that I see it as different to other model of analysis and I see it as very, very interesting and because of the fact that you learn this with little mathematics. Through these courses, we will guide you through the fundamentals of statistics, breaking down complex concepts into easy to understand lessons. Whether you’re a complete beginner or looking to brush up on your skills, you’ll find practical and valuable insights and that you can apply to help you in your studies and your career going forward. Data is all around us. We use it every day. It allows us to carry out research and understand complex and big data sets.

Skip to 1 minute and 18 seconds You need the skills and employment and at university. They’re very transferable skills. For breakdown of the details of the course and the syllabus, just scroll down and you’ll see what each of the four courses covers. We’re looking forward to seeing you on this journey to learning statistics without maths. Thank you very much.

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    Cleaning and Transforming Variables: The Basics

    • Welcome & Course Overview

      This week we cover the following: Cleaning and transforming data. You will also find a brief introduction and additional resources to help you learn.

    • Cleaning Your Data: The Basics

      Data cleaning is the process of identifying and correcting errors, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies in datasets. It involves removing duplicates, handling missing values, standardising formats, and ensuring data quality.

    • Transforming Data: The Basics

      Transforming data improves its structure, enhances its quality, and makes it suitable for analysis. This process includes normalization, scaling, and combing variables which help in uncovering insights.

    • Summary

      This week you will have learned how to clean your data, transform variables, and rescale them read for more in-depth analysis

  • Week 2

    Combining and Reducing Variables: The Basics

    • Week 2 Overview

      In this step you will gain an overview of the learning content for week 2

    • Combining Data: Reliablity Analysis

      In this session, you will learn how to use and interpret a Reliability Analysis. We will also show you an example of how this works in practice.

    • Combining Data: Mean, Sum Scores & Standardisation

      TBC

    • Reducing your Data: Factor Analysis

      In these sessions you will learn how to use more advanced methods to combine data, namely Factor Analysis.

    • Summary

      This activity provides you with a summary of learning for week 2.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Demonstrate the basic ideas behind data cleaning.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of why data is transformed.
  • Describe how data is combined using appropriate statistical techniques.
  • Apply data cleaning and transformation techniques to a dataset.

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone interested in statistics and data analysis. You don’t need a maths background, but it may be helpful to refresh your skills with the course Learn Descriptive Statistics without Maths: Correlations.

What software or tools do you need?

To really understand data analysis, you will need to also spend some time to learn using the techniques taught on the course. There are lots of different programmes that you can use - please choose the one you are comfortable with. Jamovi is one such option and the one we use within the course:

  • Jamovi. This is a free software that you can download onto your computer. A cloud version is available but requires you to create an account and has some limitations in functionality. You can download this at https://jamovi.org/.
  • Alongside this, we recommend you work through the step-by-step Jamovi guides available on the StatsMadeEasy Website - link.

Who will you learn with?

Who developed the course?

University of Lincoln

The University of Lincoln is proud to be ranked as a Top 3 University in the WhatUni University of the Year 2024 awards, as well as a triple-gold institution in the latest Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023.

  • Established

    1996
  • Location

    Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK

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Ways to learn

Choose the best way to learn for you!

Subscribe & save

$19.99

For your first month. Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Buy this course

$54/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Limited access

Free

Sample the course materials

  • Access expires 17 Dec 2024

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

Sale price available until 29 December 2024 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

Sale price available until 29 December 2024 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.

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