Discussion Questions

By the due date assigned, post your response to the assigned discussion questions in the below Discussion Area. It is important to support what you say with relevant citations in the APA format from both the course materials and outside resources. Include the South University Online Library in your research activities utilizing not only the nursing resource database, but also those pertaining to education, business, and human resources.

No later than by the end of the week, review and comment on the discussion question responses posted by at least two of your peers. Be objective, clear, and concise. Always use constructive language. All comments should be posted to the appropriate topic in this Discussion Area.

Discussion Question

Using the Excel Sheet and descriptive statistics page; you will write up your analysis for the 20 participants.

This week, you learned about the statistical software applications used to analyze data for research analysis. For this week’s discussion, you will use Excel sheet provide to run descriptive statistics, create graphs and respond to the following:

• How could you use Excel descriptive statistics for data analysis research?
• What are your plans for learning more about Excel and how will the information you learned about this software be of benefit in your future analysis of research data?

Refer to this week’s readings and video tutorials before starting this two part discussion question assignment. 

Step 1: Entering Data

Open a blank worksheet in the Excel program

You will now use Excel to view a sample dataset

Dataset Options

In many cases, researchers may have the data from their study in another software package like Microsoft Excel. However, if the data is not available in a software spreadsheet you can manually enter the data. Option 2: Manual Data Entry

In the Worksheet window, type “Age” in C1. Enter the numbers as shown in the dataset below. Enter the remaining data as shown below (set up your column labels i.e., variable). The measure reflects math anxiety and the study variables (cringe, uneasy, afraid, worried, understand) the math anxiety range is from 1–5 with low being the least and 5 the highest.

 Age

 Cringe

 Uneasy

 Afraid

 Worried

 Understand

 28

 5

 3

 4

 4

 3

 34

 2

 5

 3

 2

 1

 25

 4

 4

 4

 2

 5

 56

 3

 4

 3

 1

 2

 23

 5

 4

 3

 3

 4

 29

 1

 5

 3

  2

 3

 30

 3

 3

 5

 2

 5

 59

 2

 5

 5

 1

 2

 45

 4

 2

 5

 3

 3

 38

 1

 2

 4

 1

 1

 33

 3

 2

 4

 3

 2

 47

 4

 2

 3

 4

 5

 24

 1

 5

3

 4

 4

 29

 5

 4

 2

 1

 3

 53

 3

 1

 5

 2

 1

 48

 4

 4

 1

 5

 3

 27

 2

 5

 4

 3

 4

 34

 4

 4

 3

 2

 5

 26

 4

 5

 2

 3

 2

 36

 5

 5

 5

 4

 3

Step 2: Click on Excel tab for Add Ins; if you do not see statistics; you will need to open the file option; click on Add ins; click on ok; a box will open which will allow you to choose Statistics package; place a check mark in the box and click ok. How to Run Descriptive Statistics

Now that your data is in Excel, you will look at the descriptive statistics for this dataset. Select the data in all the columns except the top that has words for the columns; however you have the file already completed and a picture of the descriptive statistics..See end of page for a copy of the excel sheet and descriptive statistics output.

Discussion Question Part 1

How could you use Excel descriptive statistics for data analysis research? Write about your experience running descriptive statistics. Use the results in the Session Window to support your response. Then add to your discussion with the information you learn writing up your analysis.

Step 3: Excel and Graphs

You will now look at graphing. Select insert graph located at the top of the sheet; highlight the data you want to use for a chart; select the type of chart; select ok. Try using the histogram  feature for one of the variables and select “Ok”. You can create other Histogram graphs by choosing different variables. You can also choose from the other ten graph choices shown on the insert chart function.

Discussion Question Part 2

What are your plans for learning more about Excel and how will the information you learned about this software be of benefit in your future analysis of research data? Copy and paste your graph(s) in a Word document and attach to your discussion response.