Making Statistics Relevant and Easy to Learn with SPSS

The technology revolution has changed the way statisticians work and should change what and how we teach. Every instructor of statistics must grapple with choosing a particular technology that will be accessible to students and be effective in the classroom to enhance student learning.

Choosing a statistical software package that is well-aligned with both content and pedagogy, that can be integrated into classroom instruction, and that optimizes a student’s opportunities to apply statistical concepts to real data are of utmost importance. When complex computer programming is required by a software package, students will, by necessity, focus on mastering the elements of that software package at the expense of learning statistics.

The Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) College Report 2016 recommends to focus first on what to teach in introductory courses and then on how to teach those courses. These recommendations are:

1. Teach statistical thinking.

• Teach statistics as an investigative process of problem-solving and decision making.
• Give students experience with multivariable thinking.

2. Focus on conceptual understanding.

3. Integrate real data with a context and purpose.

4. Foster active learning.

5. Use technology to explore concepts and analyze data.

6. Use assessments to improve and evaluate student learning.

IBM SPSS Statistics is one such instructional platform for students to learn what it means to be a data analyst. The user-friendly program takes little effort to master and allows students to focus on learning statistical concepts in the context of real data. Because analysis is only one click away with IBM SPSS Statistics, education institutions can engage students without the distraction that comes from having to manipulate formulas or learn complex software programming commands.

Also, one can easily handle large sets of real data with IBM SPSS Statistics and, in so doing, show that only from multiple analyses one can achieve a thorough understanding of the information contained in the dataset.

IBM SPSS Campus Edition is a cost-effective way to provide academic institutions unlimited use of SPSS for teaching and learning purposes. A simple license agreement can provide an unlimited number of users with access to IBM SPSS Statistics for students and faculty, and simplifies licensing administration. Campus Edition makes it easy for colleges and universities to meet the data analysis needs of students, faculty, and researchers.

If you are a “Qualified Educational Establishment” then licensing is different as compared to a corporate license, as are the costs. The primary license metric is a ‘site’ license that allows the school or university to deploy the software across all of their owned machines that are on a particular site. However, for universities with multiple campuses, there is also the option for a ‘site’ license that allows every machine or user to use the software. This is more of a company-wide license than the site as it covers the whole institution.

Three contract riders provide institutions mix-and-match flexibility regarding their application and distribution of

technology based on their unique requirements. The riders are the perfect complement to the campus license.

• Home Use Rider allows students and faculty to access IBM SPSS software at home or off-campus locations for use on personally-owned machines. They benefit from the full complement of modules used by the university whether they are in the coffee shop, on the road or simply in the comfort of their dormitory or apartment.
• Virtual Computer Lab Rider allows a college or university to host software in a virtualized environment and make it available to students or faculty, on or off-campus, following the institution’s current licensing agreement.
• Administrative Use Rider extends the Campus Edition to support not only teaching and learning purposes but also back-office and administrative use. This rider simplifies deployment even further by essentially creating a site-wide license.

IBM SPSS Statistics Base is the core product of the statistics family and provides foundational techniques for many

common types of analysis, such as descriptive statistics, graphics, cluster analysis, and linear regression. IBM SPSS Statistics Standard includes IBM SPSS Statistics Base, IBM SPSS Advanced Statistics and IBM SPSS Regression. This product adds such features as non-linear regression, Bayesian statistics, and general linear models.

IBM SPSS Statistics Premium includes the products in IBM SPSS Statistics Standard plus Custom Tables, Data Preparation, Missing Values, Forecasting, Decision Trees, Direct Marketing, Complex Samples, Conjoint, Neural Networks, Bootstrapping, Categories, and Exact Tests. This bundle unlocks the full capabilities of SPSS Statistics. IBM SPSS Amos is also available for those users interested in teaching or using structural equation modeling.

In summary, integration of SPSS Statistics Campus Edition into courses in statistics:

• Focuses students’ attention on learning concepts rather than on formula manipulation
• Enables teaching of real-life problems, engaging students more actively in the learning process
• Increases students’ confidence in being able to learn and understand what they initially anticipated as being a complicated and difficult subject

The net result is a more popular course, one that offers more fun and profitable experience for both teacher and student. For more information about IBM SPSS Statistics Campus Edition visit this webpage or simply contact an IBM representative for getting custom pricing based on your requirements.