SESS0006/SEES0107: Understanding and Analysing Data

The module introduces data analysis to students with some experience in academic research, but little (or no) experience with quantitative methods. The course is developed so as to best emphasise the methods that are most relevant for social sciences and humanities students for whom traditional courses in quantitative methods would be too technical or inappropriately targeted. Students are first introduced to the methods/concepts that are most similar to qualitative approaches (e.g., categorical data) in order to make the learning curve less steep, as well as to highlight the usefulness of quantitative data analysis in their field of research. Special emphasis is put on interactions between qualitative and quantitative analysis and analysing data in mixed methods research. The practical goal of the module is to help students analyse data for their dissertations. As a result, the focus will be on developing usable data-analysis skills, rather than focusing on the more abstract mathematical principles underlying statistical analysis. Finally, this module will not focus on collecting data, but, rather, on understanding and analysing already-collected data (as the module name suggests).