institute for social research

York University  

Over 40 years of excellence in conducting applied and academic social research
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON Canada
M3J 1P3

Telephone: 416-736-5061
Toll-free: 1-888-847-0148
Fax: 416-736-5749
E-mail: isrnews@yorku.ca

Fall 2011 Short Courses

Courses
Statistical Analysis and Programming with R
Advanced Research Design Seminar  course full
Introduction to SAS for Windows
Introduction to SPSS for Windows

Pre-registration and payment of fees is required for all Short Courses.

Please follow these links for details on:

Course Fees
Registration
Certificate of Completion
Statistical Consulting Service

[Click here for Previous Courses]

Statistical Analysis and Programming with R
Instructor:
Professor Georges Monette
Date:
Wednesdays - Sept. 21, Oct. 5 and 19, 2011
Time:
7-10pm
Location:

Room 3006, Vari Hall

Enrolment Limit:
40

R is a statistical language and programming environment that is used extensively by statisticians and is rapidly gaining popularity among researchers in many areas. Most new statistical methods developed by statisticians make their first appearance as packages in R. Learning R requires more time and effort than popular languages like SPSS but R gives researchers a much larger repertoire of statistical approaches. It is also known for the quality of its graphics for exploration and for presentation.

Although this course assumes no previous knowledge of R, it is intended for students who are comfortable with the use of a command line interface and who intend to eventually become intermediate or advanced users of R. The course will cover: 1) the RStudio interface, 2) working with data including data structures, data manipulation and conversion from common sources, 3) overview of selected statistical methods in R, 4) graphics: traditional, lattice and 3D, and 5) object oriented programming, improving the efficiency of programs, and linking to subroutines in C.

You are encouraged to download R (cran.r-project.org) and the interface RStudio (rstudio.org) to a laptop and bring it to class. A recommended book for the course is John Fox and Sanford Weisberg (2011) An R Companion to Applied Regression, Second Edition, Sage (tinyurl.com/carbook).

Because these materials are presented sequentially and build upon the basics presented at the beginning of each day, course participants need to arrive on time and attend the entire sessions.

Advanced Research Design Seminar  -- Sorry, this course is full --
Instructor:
Professor Bryn Greer-Wootten
Date:
Tuesdays - Oct. 4, 18, Nov. 1, 15, 2011
Time:
6-9pm
Location:

Room 5082
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building

Enrolment Limit:
10

Research design in the social, environmental and behavioural sciences today must consider the choices to be made between quantitative, qualitative and mixed (i.e., both quantitative and qualitative) methods approaches. This short course is designed as a seminar to examine such choices. An introductory presentation distinguishes between these approaches from philosophical perspectives. Subsequent sessions discuss (i) the primary issues, based on assigned readings, (ii) critical reviews of participant-chosen research articles, and (iii) group critique of individual research proposals. Sufficient time between meetings is allowed for the work required for these activities.

Enrolment is limited to 10 in order to maximize the seminar setting. This Short Course is open to everyone, but the participant likely to gain most from the experience is a PhD candidate post-comprehensives or a junior faculty person. It may be necessary to select participants based on their applications: please be sure to enter your reasons for applying for this Short Course in the online Registration Form in the box marked "Additional Information". Applicants will be notified of acceptance one week prior to the first seminar meeting, i.e., by September 27, 2011.

Because these materials are presented sequentially and build upon the basics presented at the beginning of each day, course participants need to arrive on time and attend the entire sessions.

An Introduction to SAS for Windows
Instructor:
Hugh McCague, PhD
Date:
Wednesdays - Oct. 5, 19, 26, Nov. 2, 2011
Time:
1-4:30pm
Location:

Steacie Instructional Lab, Room 021
Steacie Science Library

Enrolment Limit:
35

This short course provides an introduction to the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) syntax commands and procedures. We will cover the basics of:

  • reading, transforming, sorting, merging and saving data files in some common formats;
  • selecting cases, and modifying and computing variables;
  • performing some basic statistical procedures and tests such as descriptive statistics, correlations, contingency tables, Chi-square tests, t-tests, ANOVA and linear regression;
  • creating bar charts and scatter plots;
  • composing simple macros for tailored procedures; and
  • saving output results and work in some common formats.

This course is designed for participants with some introductory level statistical knowledge, but no previous experience in using SAS. Please note that while this course will focus on the implementation of introductory statistics in SAS, it is not intended as a review of basic statistics. This short course will get you well underway in using SAS.

Because these materials are presented sequentially and build upon the basics presented at the beginning of each day, course participants need to arrive on time and attend the entire sessions.

Please note that food and drink are not allowed in Steacie Library and the Steacie Instructional Lab. The only exceptions are capped bottles of water (not juice/pop) and spill proof mugs (not cups of coffee). Washrooms are available nearby outside the library.

Click here to download the SAS course data.

Click here for the SAS course assignments
and related materials.

An Introduction to SPSS for Windows
Instructor:
Lisa Fiksenbaum, MA
Date:
Fridays - Oct. 7, 21, 28, Nov. 4, 2011
Time:
9am-12:30pm
Location:

Steacie Instructional Lab, Room 021
Steacie Science Library

Enrolment Limit:
35

This course presents the basics of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Session One will introduce the computing concepts of SPSS, the different facilities for reading data into an SPSS spreadsheet, and saving SPSS data files for future use. At the end of the first session, participants should be able to run simple programs, including some statistical procedures.

Sessions Two and Three will cover basic data modifications, transformations and other functions, including the uses of SPSS system files. More statistical procedures will also be introduced, with an emphasis on the use of graphical methods for examining univariate and bivariate relationships. Session Four will cover Analysis of Variance and Least Squares Regression. As with previous sessions, graphical techniques will be demonstrated. Participants will benefit if they have a basic level of statistical knowledge up to general linear models, but the course is designed as an introduction to data analysis using the SPSS program and not as a statistics course.

Because these materials are presented sequentially and build upon the basics presented at the beginning of each day, course participants need to arrive on time and attend the entire sessions.

Please note that food and drink are not allowed in Steacie Library and the Steacie Instructional Lab. The only exceptions are capped bottles of water (not juice/pop) and spill proof mugs (not cups of coffee). Washrooms are available nearby outside the library.

Click here to download the SPSS course data in a
self-extracting (.exe) file.

Click here to download the SPSS course data in a zip file.

Course Fees

For York University students, the fees are $45.20 per course (including HST).

For York University faculty and staff, the fees are $90.40 per course (including HST).

Full-time students at other post-secondary institutions may register for a fee of $79.10 per course (including HST).

For external participants, the fees per course (including HST) are:

Statistical Analysis and Programming with R ........ $271.20
Advanced Research Design Seminar ................... $361.60
An Introduction to SAS for Windows .................. $361.60
An Introduction to SPSS for Windows ................. $361.60

All participants: Certificate of Completion............. $5.65 each

Course fees must be paid at the time of registration.

See the registration form for payment options.

Refunds are available upon three business days' notice prior to the course start date and are subject to an administrative fee.

Please review our policy regarding refunds here.

Registration

You can register for courses by completing the on-line registration form.

To register in person (weekdays, from 9:00am to 12:00pm or 2:00pm to 4:00pm), please see:

Betty Tai
Room 5075
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building

To register by mail, print a blank registration form, complete, and send to:

Betty Tai
Institute for Social Research
Room 5075
Technology Enhanced Learning Building
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada

You may also fax a completed registration form to: 416-736-5749

Certificate of Completion

Available on request, full attendance is required.

A $5.65 administrative fee (including HST) applies, for each certificate requested.

Additional Information

Additional information regarding registration:
please telephone 416-736-5061, weekdays,
from 9:00am to 12:00pm or 2:00pm to 4:00pm

Directions to York University (Keele Campus), building and parking lot locations click here. For additional information on parking click here.

Instructors

Lisa Fiksenbaum is a doctoral candidate in Social/Personality Psychology at York University. She also received her BA and MA from York. Her training and experience in statistics includes a Teaching Assistantship for the Honours Thesis course (Psych 4170) and she has been involved in several research projects, both at the University and in the private sector. Her research interests include organizational issues, work-family relationships, stress and coping. Ms. Fiksenbaum is proficient in SPSS, and regularly consults with graduate and undergraduate students for SCS.

Bryn Greer-Wootten is Professor Emeritus in Environmental Studies and Professor Emeritus of Geography at York University. In 2002 he joined the staff in the Statistical Consulting Service, where he is currently an Associate Coordinator, and in 2004 was appointed an Associate Director of ISR. He has taught and carried out quantitative and qualitative research, with a particular interest in survey research, especially for environmental and social policy.

Hugh McCague completed a BMath (Honours) in Statistics at the University of Waterloo, and an MA in Statistics and a PhD in Environmental Studies both at York University. He has worked as a statistician in both private and public sectors. He is a statistician at the Institute for Social Research, and a consultant and instructor for the Statistical Consulting Service. His research and publications focus on applications of mathematics and statistics in health and environmental studies. He is the Secretary of the Southern Ontario Regional Association of the Statistical Society of Canada and the Southern Ontario Chapter of the American Statistical Association.

Georges Monette is an Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at York and an Associate Coordinator with the Statistical Consulting Service. Most of his research has been in the mathematical foundations of statistical inference. His recent interests are the geometric visualization of statistical concepts and the modeling and analysis of longitudinal data. He has worked in a number of applied areas, including pay equity and the statistical analysis of salary structures. He received his PhD in Statistics from the University of Toronto.

Statistical Consulting Service (SCS)

The Institute for Social Research's Statistical Consulting Service provides consultation on a broad range of statistical problems and on the use of computers for statistical analysis. Its services extend beyond the social sciences to other disciplines that make use of statistics. Consultation is available to assist in research design, data collection, data analysis, statistical computing and the presentation of statistical material.

Consultation is provided by a group of faculty drawn from York University's Departments of Sociology, Psychology, Geography, and Mathematics and Statistics, in conjunction with full-time professional staff at ISR. The faculty and staff have extensive experience with all forms of statistical analysis. Topics for which assistance is available include regression analysis, multivariate analysis, stochastic processes, probability theory, exploratory data analysis, scaling and cluster analysis, analysis of categorical data, structural equation modeling, survey data and longitudinal data, experimental design, survey sampling, and statistical computing.

Three times a year, the Statistical Consulting Service offers short courses on various aspects of statistics and statistical computing, including regular introductions to the SPSS and SAS statistical packages. Recent course offerings have included regression diagnostics, boot-strapping techniques, an introduction to the AMOS module in SPSS, graphical methods for categorical data, confirmatory factor analysis, model-based approaches to cluster analysis, introduction to the R programming language, and visual methods for statistical data analysis.

The Statistical Consulting Service maintains a regular schedule of office hours during the academic year. The Service primarily serves the York University community; for others, consultation is available on a fee-for-service basis. Please go to the Institute's Web site at www.isr.yorku.ca/scs to make appointments online with SCS consultants.

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