SOFA Lab Manual

[George Self]

I teach an undergrad research methodology class and wrote a SOFA-based lab manual for that class that some of you may be interested in. You can find the manual and the data sets at https://goo.gl/4lpIaO.

The manual has ten chapters:

1. Introduction (data types, normal distribution, kurtosis, skew, null hypothesis, downloading/installing SOFA, recoding data)
2. Central Measures (mean, median, mode)
3. Data Dispersion (range, quartiles, standard deviation)
4. Visualizing Dispersion (box charts)
5. Frequency Tables (frequency tables, crosstabs, complex crosstabs)
6. Visualizing Frequency (histogram, bar chart, clustered bar chart, pie chart, line graph)
7. Correlation (pearson's r, spearman's rho, significance, scatter plots)
8. Regression
9. Hypothesis Testing: Nonparametric Statistics (SOFA Statistics Wizard, Kruskal-Wallis H, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks, Mann-Whitney U)
10. Hypothesis Testing: Parametric Statistics (ANOVA, t-test-Independent, t-test-Paired)

There are also two appendices, the first is a data dictionary for each of the data sets used and the second covers the various report generating features of SOFA.

The lab manual covers all of the functions and features of SOFA, but in the context of a lab where those functions are practiced rather than just described. The manual also includes a lot of information about how the various statistical measures are used (for example, the difference between correlation and causation). No math knowledge beyond simple high school algebra is assumed on the part of the student and each of the labs includes a "deliverable" activity so instructors can use this as part of a class.

I've printed this manual under Creative Commons-BY-ShareAlike so please feel free to use this in any way you want. Of course, I'm also happy to receive comments that could help me improve this manual in the future.

--George

[Grant Paton-Simpson]

Fantastic George - I have just added a blog post with thanks and details (http://www.sofastatistics.com/blog/great-new-sofa-teaching-resource/) and tweeted it.

[IonCube khanz]

Extremely Thanks

[Self, George]

Thanks for the notice - and blog post. For what it's worth, I just now posted the 2nd edition of that lab manual (but it's in the same location that you posted so no update is needed in your blog). I found a couple of concepts that needed to be better explained and have "tightened up" some of the exercises. 

-----

George Self
Dean, Extended Learning
se...@cochise.edu
(520) 335-1365
Cochise College
Downtown Center, 2600 Wilcox Drive
​Mail to: 901 N. Colombo Ave
Sierra Vista, AZ 85635-2317​

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[Julia S]

Gracias! / Thanks! / Dankon!

Es un recurso muy útil para los estudiantes.
It's a very useful resource for students.
Ĝi estas tre utila rimedo por studentoj.

Un saludo!

To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to sofastatistic...@googlegroups.com.

[Nico Van den Berg]

HI George,

I'd like to read your lab manual but it's not available anymore.

Nico van den Berg

Op zondag 11 december 2016 17:58:53 UTC+1 schreef George Self:

[Self, George]

I've attached the last version of that manual I have available. I last used SOFA in the fall of 2017 so the manual has not been updated since then. I wrote this with LATEX and if you are familiar with that program then I'll be happy to send the source files to you, just let me know. If you do not know how to use LATEX then the source files would not do you much good though I would still be glad to send them to you if you want.

-----

George Self
se...@cochise.edu
(520) 

335-2958

Cochise College

Downtown Center
2600 East Wilcox Drive
Sierra Vista, AZ 85635

--

[Nico Van den Berg]

Hi George,

Thank you for your very fast reaction.

Greetz

Nico van den Berg

Op maandag 22 oktober 2018 17:00:32 UTC+2 schreef George Self:

[Nico Van den Berg]

Hi George,

That pdf of your lab manual is perfect to me. But now I'd like to download your zipped datasets. That location also isn't available anymore.

Nico van den Berg

Op maandag 22 oktober 2018 17:00:32 UTC+2 schreef George Self:

I've attached the last version of that manual I have available. I last used SOFA in the fall of 2017 so the manual has not been updated since then. I wrote this with LATEX and if you are familiar with that program then I'll be happy to send the source files to you, just let me know. If you do not know how to use LATEX then the source files would not do you much good though I would still be glad to send them to you if you want.

[Self, George]

I believe that this is the file that you want. For what it's worth, these are all public datasets so there is no copyright issue; I found them all with various R packages (which I use at work). The "maincafe" dataset is one I generated just for this class so it is fake data that has no copyright, just be sure to not release it as a legitimate survey result. 

Again, I'm glad to help if I can.

-----

George Self
se...@cochise.edu
(520) 

335-2958

Cochise College

Downtown Center
2600 East Wilcox Drive
Sierra Vista, AZ 85635