Good morning!
This week, we're all required to explore a brand new application, SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science). Truth to be told, we're late behind schedule. We're supposed to be done of this assignment by the fourth week. Yet, the process of preparing a research report took a strain in both our time and stress managements. Before I delve deeper into the topic, let's define SPSS. Honestly, I was feeling quite lost initially as I don't really understand the functions of SPSS. The only alternative left - Google Search!
What is SPSS?
It is a statistical package from SPSS Inc., Chicago that runs on PCs, most mainframes and minis and is used extensively in marketing research. It is mainly used for survey authoring and deployment (IBM SPSS Data Collection), data mining (IBM SPSS Modeler), text analytics, statistical analysis, and collaboration & deployment (batch & automated scoring services). [Source: TechEncyclopedia & Wikipedia)
As mentioned before, ICT learning is all about trial and error. I’ve tried to download the software from the Internet only to found out that it’s a 14 days trial program. We’ve confronted our course lecturer about the problem. Luckily, he has his original copy of the program so all I need to do was to transfer and install the program into my laptop. Remember the previous assignment where we’re required to come up with a list of questionnaires. Turn out that we have to analyse the data using SPSS and prepare a mini research paper based on the data collected.
In fact, this week’s assignment is the most difficult and time-consuming by far. As soon as the requirement of at least 10 respondents had been fulfilled, my pair and I started to brainstorm about ideas to be written in our report. We are also told to:-
1. Download the online data from Google Docs in Excel format (*xls).
2. Import the data into the SPSS program. (Data from the printed questionnaire is manually inserted one by one.)
3. Convert the data (multiple choice questions and checkboxes) into numeric form from 0 to 5 except for scale items.
4. Click the “Analyse” tab --> “Descriptive Statistics” --> and lastly the “Frequency” button.
5. Select all variables except for timestamps in the drop box and click the arrow button.
6. Click “Graphs” tab for customisation and “Continue”
An output form in which the frequency of each data is presented in table form will appear after the program is done analysing the data. We were also told to customise the data into graphs or charts to be included in our mini research paper as statistical proofs.
This is the link for our SPSS output file:
However, my pair and I did face several problems while using the SPSS application. When our lecturer first explained the task to us, I was confused and lost as I did not understand most of the instructions given. Actually, the lecturer did quite a good job in making the instructions all the more comprehensible for us to understand. I don’t speak ICT and it seems that the instructions got lost in translation. So, I consulted Mr. Farriduddin again for further explanation and he did try to make the instructions sound more English than ICT for better understanding. In the end, I managed to understand the message conveyed and picture the overview of the task. Besides, I had a hard time trying to figure out how to customise those data into graphical images too. I tried consulting other course mates for further information. And thankfully enough, they provided me with a multitude of information regarding this application program. Just double click on the graphs and charts and a drop box will appear beside them. You can select colours and patterns available in the drop box to your own liking.
On the other hand, there are a number of respondents who did not answer the questionnaire form according to instruction. They are needed to provide only an answer per question especially for the multiple choice questions and check boxes. Yet, some of them took the initiative and gave more than is needed. This further complicates data analysis as it might affect the outcomes of our mini research. We asked guidance from our course lecturer and he told us to choose the first answer provided by the respondents. This ease things up a little bit. All in all, I had a great time exploring this new application program despite the many obstacles I faced during self-exploration. Undeniably, learning is all about trial and error. But, I also believe that learning is all about asking questions too. Trial and error alone is not enough for learning as students are not being provided the explanations of how things work.
That's all for today.
Happy reading! =)
Aileen Tiong Ling
A135735
B. Ed TESL IPGKS - UKM
GGGE1155 Computer in Education
Faculty of Education
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