The first section below surveys six different resources available around the Indiana University campus for learning about statistics. The remaining four sections give further details about how to become proficient at using specific software programs.
Highlighted resource: If you don't have experience and want to learn how to use R, see 'R Step-by-Step and Another Tutorial.
Statistics class:
For choosing a class in order to learn basic statistical theory, see the list of graduate statistics courses at Indiana University.
Workshop:
For a quicker introduction, consider attending a workshop offered by the Indiana Statistical Consulting Center, e.g. "Your Statistical Tool Belt" or "Introduction to Statistics in R". Each workshop occurs once per semester and is free for IU students. In addition, workshops on statistics are held as part of the Workshop in Methods talk series.
Software workshop:
For training on specific software, IU's Information Technology (IT) Training program offers numerous workshops on Microsoft Excel (including one on its statistical features) as well as workshops on SPSS and SAS. All workshops are free for IU students.
Reading on your own:
To read more about using statistics software, see the tutorials and working papers from IU's Research Analytics Group.
Software support:
To ask a question about statistical software, you can also can also contact the Research Analytics Group for consulting.
One-on-one consulting:
To get one-on-one assistance with analyzing your data, consider making an appointment with the Indiana Statistical Consulting Center (ISCC). The ISCC can also help with the initial design of a study or describing the statistics in a paper or presentation. IU students can make up to four (approximately one hour long) appointments per semester for free.
Microsoft Excel is the most popular spreadsheet application used today. For details, see the homepage and the Wikipedia page.
The easiest way to learn about Excel on campus is through IT Training. For learning statistics, the following workshops are useful:
You might also consider taking one of IT Training's two certificate series on Excel. If you complete the 4 workshops in either series, you will get a paper certificate showing completion of the program, which you can put on your CV:
If you are interested in one of the above workshops but don't have time to attend (or if you have a schedule conflict), note that after you log in to the IT training website, you can download the PDF 'textbook' used in any of the workshops (plus its accompanying exercise files). You can go then go through these materials on your own.
R is free software programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics. Further details can be found at the official homepage, the Wikipedia page, or the R page on the website of IU's Research Analytics Group.
The R Step-by-Step website, created by Aaron Albin, contains a set of scripts that walks you through how to create plots and run statistical tests in R. No prior knowledge of R is assumed.
Another tutorial is being developed by Phil Weirich. Again, no prior knowledge of R is assumed.
The following resources are also available from the Research Analytics Group.
The Indiana Statistical Consulting Center offers several workshops on how to use R for statistics, such as "Introduction to Statistics in R" or "Applications of Linear Models in R" (depending on the semester).
SPSS ('Statistical Package for the Social Sciences') is one of the most popular commercial software packages for statistical analysis. Further details can be found at the official homepage, the Wikipedia page, or the SPSS page on the website of IU's Research Analytics Group.
IT Training offers a workshop called SPSS: The Basics. In addition, the workshop Your Statistical Tool Belt from the Indiana Statistical Consulting Center also teaches how to use SPSS.
The Research Analytics Group provides many resources on how to use SPSS:
SAS ('Statistical Analysis System') is a commercial software suite for advanced analytics and data management. Further details can be found at the official homepage, the Wikipedia page, or the SAS page on the website of IU's Research Analytics Group.
IT Training offers a workshop called SAS: The Basics.
The Research Analytics Group provides many resources on how to use SAS:
