Peer Review

PSPP: A Basic Tutorial

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Apr 11, 2020 by Sociology

Bookmark

Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

This tutorial is intended for those who want to learn the basics of PSPP which is a statistical analysis program available to users at no charge. It can be used as a text in a class or by those working independently. Each chapter has instructions that guide you through a series of problems, as well as graphics showing you what your screen should look like at various steps in the process. The tutorial uses a subset of the 2018 General Social Survey. Both the data set and the tutorial can be freely downloaded from the website. PSPP can be downloaded by going to http://pspp.awardspace.info/.

Type of Material:

Tutorial including interactive instructions and example data sets for applications.

Recommended Uses:

This can be used as a stand alone tutorial package, in teams which can share their results interactively, or in a lab classroom. Each chapter is a self-contained unit which includes both written and visual instructions and exercise. In class, the instructor can assist as a consultant to answer questions that occur. It would be great to assign for individual homework in a research/statistics course that is using PSPP.

Technical Requirements:

User must download PSPP by going to http://pspp.awardspace.info/ .

High speed internet and computer that can support graphics.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

This a great resource for students who are learning PSPP which is a free statistical package. The tutorial includes information on how to: create/save/open data files, transform data, compute univariate statistics, compare means, get crosstabulations, use regression and correlation, and write a research report.

Target Student Population:

College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Graduate School, Professional. It would work for any introductory course in statistics.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

The student will need pre-requisites leading to the Introduction to Statistics Course.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: This tutorial offers clear and concise step-by-step directions on how to use PSPP for a variety of purposes. Each chapter is a complete description of a particualar type of statistical analysis including what type of data would apply, size of samples, and expected results gleaned through analysis. It's use of recent GSS data and the variables used should be interesting to students.
Concerns:: Perhaps more web-based visual tutorials could be supplied to support the tutorial.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: The hands-on approach to using PSPP is an effective way to assist students in becoming familiar with how to use statistical packages.
Concerns:: None.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: The step-by-step directions are concise and provide the information to successfully completing the integrated statistical analyses. Instructions in each chapter are clear. The site was updated in 2019 and all links work.
Concerns:: The main page describes the purpose of the website and the importance of learning the software package. Getting to the modules or navigating between modules is tricky and needs more instruction.

Other Issues and Comments:: This is a very complete package for an Introductory Statistics course. Students can use the package without cost.
Creative Commons: