This free course, Interpreting data: Boxplots and tables, is concerned with two main topics. In Section 1, you will learn about another kind of graphical display, the boxplot. A boxplot is a fairly simple graphic, which displays certain summary statistics of a set of data. Boxplots are particularly useful for assessing quickly the location, dispersion, and symmetry or skewness of a set of data, and for making comparisons of these features in two or more data sets. Boxplots can also be useful for drawing attention to possible outliers in a data set. The other topic, which is covered in Sections 2 and 3, is that of dealing with data presented in tabular form. You are, no doubt, familiar with such tables: they are common in the media and in reports and other documents. Yet it is not always straightforward to see at first glance just what information a table of data is providing, and it often helps to carry out certain calculations and/or to draw appropriate graphs to make this clearer. In this free course, some other kinds of data tables and some different approaches are covered.
Overview
Syllabus
- Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- Overview
- 1 Boxplots
- 1 Boxplots
- 1.1 Simple boxplots
- 1.2 Boxplot activity
- 1.3 Comparing data sets using boxplots
- 1.4 Boxplot activity 2
- 1.5 Summary
- 1.6 Exercise
- 2 Producing useful tables
- 2 Producing useful tables
- 2.1 Data sets in different tabular forms
- 2.2 Basic table layout
- 2.3 Table activity
- 2.4 Including the results of useful calculation
- 2.5 Early retirement from the National Health Service
- 2.6 Summary
- 3 Interpreting data in table
- 3 Interpreting data in table
- 3.1 Health personnel in Thailand
- 3.2 Health care personnel in Thailand: activities
- 3.3 HIV testing in sub-Saharan Africa
- 3.4 Guidelines for graphics
- 3.5 The British Crime Survey
- 3.6 Summary of Section 3
- 4 Conclusion
- 4 Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
