Full Citation
Title: Teaching Basic Statistics Using Integrated Global Census and Survey Data
Citation Type: Conference Paper
Publication Year: 2018
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Abstract: The IPUMS project at the University of Minnesota, in partnership with National Statistical Offices and International Agencies, provides researcher access to census and survey microdata from around the world, integrated (i.e., consistently coded) across time and space. IPUMS integration and documentation makes it easy to study change, conduct comparative research, and analyze individuals within their family and community context. Based on feedback from statistics educators at the ICOTS 9 conference and at meetings of the International Association for Statistical Education, IPUMS has developed exercises, posted online, with 9 modules on teaching basic statistics using global census and health survey data. Each exercise notes the focal statistical concept, specifies the variables used for the exercise, suggests appropriate country- and year-specific samples to use, supplies R programming code, and includes answers and interpretive questions to test students' understanding of the topic. Specifically, these exercises cover 1) data exploration (through frequency distributions and graphs), 2) probability, 3) probability distributions, 4) confidence intervals, 5) hypothesis testing, 6) comparing two groups, 7) association between categorical variables, 8) regression analysis, and 9) multiple regression. The exercises include helpful contextual information from the social sciences related to the topical themes covered by these census and survey data sets. With integrated data from nearly 100 countries, teachers can easily modify these exercises to suit the interests of their students, vary course content every semester, and prepare students to evaluate inconsistencies and cope with imperfections in real-world data. From a user-friendly web interface, researchers can see at a glance the variable available for each country and year, and can download a customized dataset with just the information needed for their research project. Data and services are available free of charge, at www.ipums.org. The exercises will aid in training statisticians for real-world data experiences. Future directions include developing materials to use official censuses and surveys as contextual material for evaluating the utility or calibrating estimations based on data from other less formal environments and from "big data" sources.
Url: http://www.oecd.org/iaos2018/programme/IAOS-OECD2018_Cleveland-King-Jeffers.pdf
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Cleveland, Lara; King, Miriam; Jeffers, Kristen
Conference Name: 16th Conference of IAOS OECD Headquarters
Publisher Location: Paris, France
Data Collections: IPUMS International, IPUMS Global Health - DHS, IPUMS Global Health - PMA
Topics: Education, Methodology and Data Collection, Other
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