SPSS syntax and Multilevel Modelling courses; Sheffield, Nov 2010
Chris
A quick advertisement for a couple of statistics courses provided by
Figure It Out, the statistical consultancy unit at the Institute of
Work Psychology, University of Sheffield, in November 2010. The
courses are particularly aimed at researchers, practitioners and
postgraduate students from the fields of psychology, management/
business, sociology, and the social sciences more generally.
- Wednesday 10th November, 2010: Data Management using the SPSS syntax
language
- Thursday 11th November, 2010: Introduction to Multilevel Modelling
using SPSS
The standard rate for the full day courses is £250, the student rate
is £175; and if you attend both of the courses you get a further 50
pound discount on the total cost.
Details of the courses are given below: for further information and to
book a place, go to http://www.offbeat.group.shef.ac.uk/FIO/trainingcourses.htm
or email Charlotte McClelland: c.mccl...@sheffield.ac.uk
These courses, plus further courses on Multiple Regression, Structural
Equation Modelling using Mplus, and Questionnaire Scale Construction
and Validation, are also available on an inhouse basis:
see http://www.offbeat.group.shef.ac.uk/FIO/bespoketraining.htm
cheers
Chris
******* Course details for each course are as follows: *******
-|- Data management using SPSS syntax -|-
Wednesday 10th November, 2010; 9.30am to 5.30pm, at the University of
Sheffield -|-
-|- Who is the course aimed at?
This course is aimed at a very wide audience, namely anyone who ever
has to handle data using SPSS! It serves as both an introduction to
the SPSS syntax language, and as a guide to the principles of good
data management. It is particularly beneficial if you collect your own
data and need to convert it to SPSS format, and/or have to create
variables, merge data from different files, etc.
There are very few grey areas in managing data - your data is either
accurate or it is not. And if it is not, then it is more than likely
that the results from your analysis of it will be incorrect too. Learn
to improve your data managment skills and hence create more time for
the more interesting parts of a study i.e. the analysis of it, safe in
the knowledge that you are working from an accurate, fully documented
data set.
Using the SPSS syntax language to import, organise and manipulate your
data is substantially more efficient time-wise than using the menus,
and has the dual advantages of simple repeatability and of providing
an audit trail for your work. Course examples and data sets will
largely come from survey data, but the skills learned are applicable
and widely transferable to an incredibly wide variety of scenarios.
-|- Course level:
Whilst some previous experience of using SPSS via the menus (i.e.
point and click) is expected, no previous experience in using the SPSS
syntax language is required.
-|- Course content and aims:
- The course will cover the following topics: Starting with syntax -
why use SPSS syntax, the basics of writing and running syntax;
determining when your command runs
- Some simple SPSS commands - opening and saving files, describing
data via frequencies, descriptives and crosstabs
- Reading data into SPSS from other formats - handling text format,
Excel format data,
- Defining and documenting data, variable names, variable labels,
value labels, missing value, formatting data
- Creating new variables - recoding, computing, count, performing
calculations on subsets via DO IF - END IF, making multiple
calculations using DO REPEAT loops
- Manipulating cases - selecting subsets of data for analysis,
filtering files, splitting files, sorting cases
- Manipulating files - aggregating files, restructuring files,
matching files, adding cases, updating files
- Data Management: a worked example - best practice for creating and
managing a complex data set
-|- Course Format:
The course will take the form of a mixture of teaching via examples
worked through by the trainer on real data sets which participants can
follow, exercises to practice the skills just learned, and a few short
demonstrations of the further capabilities of SPSS syntax. You will
also receive a 50-page coursebook containg all the notes and worked
examples, providing an easy reference and reminder for the techniques
you have learned.
-|- Course schedule:
The course will start at 9.30am, and finish at around 5.15 - 5.30pm,
though I will be willing to stay on for a while after this and to
answer questions pertinent to participants' own data sets or any
queries you may have.
***********
-|- Multi-level Modelling using SPSS -|-
Thursday 11th November, 2010; 9.30am to 5.30pm, at the University of
Sheffield -|-
-|- Who is the course aimed at?
This course is aimed at two distinct groups. It is primarily designed
as a beginners' course in multi-level modelling (AKA Hierarchical
Linear Modelling), for those who face the challenge of working with
multi-level data sets and want to be able to analyse them in the most
powerful and accurate way.
However it should also appeal to those with a little experience of
multi-level modelling using other specialist packages who now want to
learn how to run such models in SPSS using the MIXED MODELS menu and
commands.
-|- Course level:
A reasonable working knowledge of multiple regression and some
previous experience of using SPSS to perform statistical analysis is
expected. No previous experience of multi-level modelling will be
assumed.
-|- Course content and aims:
The course will cover the following topics:
- Introduction to multi-level data - what it is and why it requires
special treatment
- Restructuring Data in preparation for multi-level modelling
- What is a multi-level model?
- Building and fitting a multi-level model in SPSS
- Further issues in multi-level modelling: centering, sample size and
scaling
- Advanced multi-level models: analysing longitudinal data and cross-
sectional data using multi-level modelling in SPSS
-|- Course Format:
The course comprises of a mixture of short lectures on the basic
theory behind multi-level models, teaching via examples worked through
by the trainer on real data sets which participants can follow, and
exercises to practice the skills just learned. You will also receive a
70-page coursebook containing all the notes and worked examples,
providing an easy reference and reminder for the techniques you have
learned.
-|- Course schedule:
The course will start at 9.30am, and finish at around 5.15 - 5.30pm,
though I will be willing to stay on for a while after this and to
answer questions pertinent to participants' own data sets or any other
multi-level modelling queries you may have.
For further information and to book a place, go to
http://www.offbeat.group.shef.ac.uk/FIO/trainingcourses.htm
*** for both courses above ***
The teacher:
Dr Chris Stride has been using SPSS in his work as a statistician and
data manager for the last 12 years. He has particular experience and
expertise in teaching non-statisticians from the fields of psychology,
HR, management and the social sciences. He is a Chartered Statistician
and a member of the ASSESS (UK and European SPSS Users Group)
Committee; and has been running statistical training courses at the
University of Sheffield and on an inhouse basis to Universities and
Public Sector organisations over the past few years.