UM lecturer develops free statistical software for students worldwide

Dr Gianmarco Alberti, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty for Social Wellbeing, has developed a free software tool that makes a key area of statistics accessible to students who have no programming experience.

The tool, called ChiSquaredTools, is now available in the official library of Jamovi: a free, open-source statistics programme used by universities around the world. It enables students to analyse categorical data (such as survey responses, demographic information, or behavioural observations) through a simple point-and-click interface, without writing a single line of code.

Jamovi is built on top of R, the powerful programming language widely used in academic research and data science. However, unlike R, Jamovi offers a modern, intuitive interface, similar in feel to familiar spreadsheet software, that shields users from the underlying code. This means students can benefit from R's statistical capabilities without needing to learn programming. Dr Alberti has used Jamovi extensively in his teaching at UM over the past six years, finding it particularly effective for helping students focus on understanding statistics rather than wrestling with syntax.

The new ChiSquaredTools module fills a gap in Jamovi's capabilities. Whilst the software already handles many common statistical procedures, it lacked comprehensive tools for cross-tabulation analysis—a fundamental technique in social sciences research for examining relationships between categorical variables. The module provides eight different analytical facilities, from basic independence tests to advanced stratified analysis.

What sets the module apart is its educational design. Each analysis includes optional explanations of the methods, guidance on when to use them, and interpretation support, essentially building a teaching assistant into the software itself. This approach addresses the double challenge that students often face: learning statistical concepts whilst simultaneously learning how to use software.

The development drew directly from Dr Alberti's recent book, From Data to Insights: A Beginner's Guide to Cross-Tabulation Analysis, published by Chapman & Hall in 2024. The module serves as a practical companion to the textbook, allowing students to read about a technique and immediately apply it to their own data.

The software is freely available to anyone through the Jamovi module library, making it accessible to students, researchers, and educators worldwide.