IT Services

IBM SPSS courses

IBM SPSS courses

IBM SPSS: Introduction

Trainer: Prof. Liberato Camilleri - Department of Statistics & Operations Research
Target audience: Staff and UM students
Prerequisites: Familiarity with MS Windows and MS Excel
Duration of course: 6 hours (3 sessions of 2 hours each)
Registration fee: €37.27

This course is aimed at staff and UM students who want to use IBM SPSS to complement or enhance their statistical analysis, but who do not have the time to study the associated techniques from scratch. The course is intended for beginner IBM SPSS users.

The main aim is to teach participants basic statistics, and how IBM SPSS can help in analysing data efficiently. Course participants will learn how to input data into IBM SPSS, how to create variables, how to illustrate data graphically, how to get simple statistics such as mean, variance etc., and reliability analysis, which is essential to validate results obtained from a questionnaire. The only essential prerequisite is familiarity with MS Windows and the basic concepts of MS Excel.

The course consists of three sessions of 2 hours each.

Sampling techniques and sample size

  • Random, systematic, stratified, cluster and multistage sampling
  • Estimate confidence interval given sample size
  • Estimate sample size given confidence interval

Basics of IBM SPSS

  • Explain SPSS toolbars
  • Generate categorical and continuous variables
  • Enter data into SPSS
  • Use of the Recode and the Select options
  • Transform continuous to categorical variables
  • Sorting data
  • Analyse multiple responses by using the multiple response option
  • Analyse multiple responses by stacking the data

Exploring IBM SPSS graphics

  • Produce histograms to display distribution of continuous variables
  • Generate bar graphs and pie charts for categorical variables
  • Produce scatter plots to relate two continuous variables
  • Generate clustered bar graphs to relate two categorical variables
  • Produce box plots and line graphs

Descriptive statistics

  • Define measures of location - mean, median and mode
  • Define measures of dispersion - range, variance and standard deviation
  • Define measure of symmetry - coefficient of skewness
  • Define measure of peakedness - coefficient of kurtosis

Reliability analysis

  • Inter-rater, Intra-rater and Test retest reliability
  • The Kappa measure of agreement for nominal scaled responses
  • Kendall tau measure of agreement for ordinal scaled responses
  • Intraclass correlation measure of agreement for interval scaled responses
  • Internal consistency using Cronbach's Alpha and Guttman split half coefficient

The course is intended to be a hands-on course, where a technique learnt will be applied to a case study. Further exercises will be available for the user who wants further practice.

Download the IBM SPSS: Introduction courseware  

IBM SPSS: Intermediate

Trainer: Prof. Liberato Camilleri - Department of Statistics & Operations Research
Target audience: Staff and UM students
Prerequisites: IBM SPSS: Introduction
Duration of course: 6 hours (3 sessions of 2 hours each)
Registration fee: €37.27

This course is aimed at staff and UM students who already have a background of statistics and the use of IBM SPSS as a statistical tool. The main aim is to teach participants more advanced statistical analyses, and how IBM SPSS can help in analysing data efficiently. Course participants will learn how to perform simple and advanced tests on data using IBM SPSS. The only essential prerequisite is knowledge of the content covered in the IBM SPSS: Introduction course.

The course consists of three sessions of 2 hours each.

Aspects of hypothesis testing

  • Null and alternative hypotheses
  • Type I and Type II errors
  • Level of significance and P-values

Testing the normality assumption

  • P-P plots and Q-Q plots
  • Kolmogorov Smirnov test

Parametric tests

  • Pearson correlation
  • One sample t-test
  • Paired samples t-test
  • Two independent samples t-test
  • One-way ANOVA
  • Two-way ANOVA

Non-parametric tests

  • Spearman correlation
  • Binomial (Sign) test
  • Wilcoxon signed ranks test
  • Mann Whitney test
  • Kruskal Wallis test
  • Chi-Square test
  • Friedman

The course is intended to be a hands-on course, where a technique learnt will be applied to a case study. Further exercises will be available for the user who wants further practice.

Download the IBM SPSS: Intermediate courseware  

IBM SPSS: Advanced

Trainer: Prof. Liberato Camilleri - Department of Statistics & Operations Research
Target audience: Staff, postgraduate and doctoral students
Prerequisites: IBM SPSS: Introduction and IBM SPSS: Intermediate
Duration of course: 6 hours (3 sessions of 2 hours each)
Registration fee: €37.27

This course is aimed at staff, postgraduate and doctoral students (Masters and Ph.D.), who already have a background of statistics and the use of IBM SPSS as a statistical tool, but need to use advanced statistical analyses that are required for postgraduate theses. The main aim is to teach participants about general linear models, generalized linear models, data reduction and clustering techniques. The only essential prerequisite is knowledge of the content covered in the IBM SPSS: Introduction and IBM SPSS: Intermediate courses.

The course consists of three sessions of 2 hours each.

General linear models

  • Multiple regression models
  • ANOVA regression models
  • ANCOVA regression models

Generalized linear models

  • Binary/Multinomial logistic regression models
  • Log-linear models for count data

Data reduction technique

  • Factor analysis by principal components

Clustering techniques

  • Hierarchical methods - Ward method
  • Non-hierarchical method - K-means
  • Two step cluster
  • Discriminant analysis

The course is intended to be a hands-on course, where a technique learnt will be applied to a case study. Further exercises will be available for the user who wants further practice.

Download the IBM SPSS: Advanced courseware  

Registration

IBM SPSS courses are scheduled every semester, including summer. You may request to be placed on the waiting list to be informed via email when the next courses will be scheduled.

You can register for the courses online. There is a course registration fee of €37.27 per course, which has been kept to an absolute minimum to cover tutoring costs. Courseware is available for free.

The following online payment methods are accepted:

  • Academic staff can use their personal Academic Work Resources Funds debit card or any other credit/debit card
  • Students can use any credit/debit card
  • Administrative, technical and industrial staff can authorise payment using any credit/debit card. They may then apply for reimbursement of the course fee through the Work Resources Fund Committee. The Committee requires proof of regular attendance before approving the reimbursement of the course fee. IT Services will issue a certificate to participants who attended the course, which can be used as proof of attendance.

Registrations are accepted on a first-come first-served basis. IT Services reserves the right not to proceed with a course in which case a full refund will be issued.

Cancellation/refund policy

  • IT Services will not issue refunds if applicants fail to attend full or part of the course
  • IT Services reserves the right to cancel a course if the minimum number of participants is not reached. In such cases, the participants are given the opportunity to attend the next course or they will be refunded the full course registration fee.

https://www.um.edu.mt/itservices/training/spsscourses/