By Dr Lyn Lavery
If a t-test sounds like something you’d do to test the strength of your cuppa, and you think kurtosis is a tropical disease, then you might like to consider upskilling your quantitative research skills!
Quantitative research is generally focused on measurement and the testing of theory. An important aspect of this is the calculation of various statistics, in order to summarise your findings and convey the strength of them. If you’re the kind of person who disliked maths at school, then this can be a little daunting!
Help is on hand however. There are three upcoming workshops that will be helpful for you if you’re considering quantitative research for your thesis or dissertation research – and all are free to AUT postgraduate students. The first of these is a basic, one hour ‘Introduction to Quantitative Research’ on 15th September. This is ideal for those who may not be sure about what quantitative approaches entail, and will cover quantitative research designs along with key quantitative concepts. This course is offered online, so you won’t even have to leave your desk and battle traffic to attend!
The second workshop covers how to conduct statistical testing once you’ve collected your research data (Statistical Testing for Beginners on September 22nd). Basic statistical tests such as t-tests, ANOVAs, correlation and chi-square will be covered, with a focus on how to choose the appropriate statistical test and then interpret the results. If you’re needing to conduct advanced statistical testing, then this isn’t the workshop for you – the content is specifically designed for those who are new to statistics.
The third workshop (SPSS for Beginners) on October 6th will introduce the SPSS software. This will be ideal for those who need to conduct statistical testing and who would like to learn a user-friendly statistical package to speed up their analysis.
All three workshops will be facilitated by Dr Lyn Lavery from Academic Consulting. There will be lots of tips, tricks, and suggestions for further resources and reading.
