Fundamentals of SPSS

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Note re laptops:

A laptop is required for this course. We recommend that course participants bring their own Windows machine however Apple and Linux machines are also OK, as long as the user is very confident with it.  

The laptop will need to have SPSS installed. Most university staff and students will have access to SPSS through their institution, however it is extremely important that you check that your license works when you are not on campus at your university, as sometimes the settings/license require access to your university's VPN. If SPSS works on your laptop when you are at home then you should have nothing to worry about. Otherwise you may need to contact your relevant IT department. Wireless Internet will be available during the course.

If you do not have SPSS on your laptop, a 14-day free trial version is available via the IBM website (obviously this would need to be downloaded no sooner than 30th Jan in order to last for the duration of the course).   

We also strongly recommend that participants bring a mouse and, if they have one, a laptop lock although we will have some spare locks. 

All course participants are asked to please email info@acspri.org.au by 27/1/2015 at the latest to confirm they have access to a laptop for the course and will be able to access SPSS; or alternatively make contact by this date to request help. 

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This course will provide participants with sufficient knowledge of SPSS to enable them to create and run SPSS jobs for analysing data obtained from surveys, experiments and other sources. It will also provide them with a structure to help them develop a data analysis plan. Instruction and practical work will be integrated in all sessions of the course. Each participant will have a computer, and individual assistance will be available. The course will be based on SPSS version 20, but it is also suitable for users of earlier versions of SPSS or users of SPSS on MAC or PC platforms. This course is being offered in a computer lab.
 

The course provides a grounding in the use of the SPSS package for data analysis. It focuses on the analysis of survey, administrative and/or census data, and will use descriptive statistical techniques to demonstrate the package's features. Some revision of statistics concepts will be covered if needed, though it is not planned as a comprehensive course in statistics.
 

Topics to be covered include: the Windows environment as applicable to SPSS; key elements of a SPSS 'job' - defining, entering data and running jobs, preparing data for analysis; raw data files - using both  pull down menus and syntax, SPSS files and data from other packages; selecting and modifying data, creating new variables; graphing data; developing a data analysis plan - deciding on the measures, tables and graphs appropriate for the study being undertaken; output files - formats, data analysis procedures, univariate and bivariate analyses, presentation of results in reports and tables, and the analysis of multiple response questions. It will also involve some of the file handling features of SPSS, including merging of both cases and variables.