Descriptive & Inferential Stats ... plus a few other things

This post is informed by a Level 5 Adult Nurse student who asked the question as an outcome of the module she is studying on Research for Practice (Qualitative Methods and Tools).

What is the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics?

Descriptive Stats: In more depth

This video gives some really useful background to the different types of data, based on examples, what tests you can perform based on the type of data, and how to apply it to your research or when reading research papers.

UEA Online Maths Support: A great starting place

Increasingly, people are using the Internet and YouTube to help them with their Maths. We'd strongly encourage this move as there is a wealth of information available. Therefore, to help you get to navigate this wealth of knowledge, we are recommending a good starting point for your journey is the following source. The reason being it offers excellent coverage, it is easy to navigate to the information areas, and the majority of the guides are available as videos.

The University of East Anglia's Learning Enhancement Team: Maths

Monthly Video: Hypothesis Testing (small sample - t test)

A requirement is the use of statistics to help us either accept or reject a hypothesis (A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothesis).

The accepting or rejecting of a Null Hypothesis, often involves a T Test (where the sample is less than 30) or a Z Test (where the sample is greater than 30).

The following video walks through an illustration of what this means and how to complete a T Test. Although the software application often calculates the actual number, it is really useful for us to understand how it is calculated to help our interpretation. The following video is from the Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/).


If you have any questions, please email learningservices@ucs.ac.uk

Student Request: Converting a fraction into a decimal

In response to a session I ran the other day, I thought the following Khan Academy video would be really useful for those who are looking at refreshing on how to convert a fraction into a decimal. It is also really useful as it explains how to convert a decimal into a fraction :-)

If you have any questions around Maths Support, please email learningservices@ucs.ac.uk

Thanks - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Ybc7289-bw.jpg

Monthly video: Interpreting p values

Currently, one of the most frequent requests we receive is around, "what is a p value? what does it mean?".

The following videos have been selected to answer the following questions; 

1. what is a p-value?
2. when and where are thy used?
3. what do they show?

The videos use lots of terminology, a key one to remember, is "Null hypothesis, refers to a general statement or default position that there is no relationship between two measured phenomena." If we reject the Null hypothesis, (indicated by a low p-value) we can accept the alternate hypothesis"

Video 1:


Video 2: Looks at it from the perspective of the hypothesis


More YouTube explanations are available from: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=interpreting+p+values 

If you have any questions, please email learningservices@ucs.ac.uk

If you are using Google Sheets, there is a template to allow you to calculate a Z and T Test, which produces the p values. For more information, see

• https://drive.google.com/previewtemplate?id=0As3tAuweYU9QcHlVM3hrY2tocEkzUjZwcDFmd2xTRXc&mode=public 

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Thanks - Image Source - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/P-value_Graph.png

Student request: Find the equation of a line with a certain gradient which passes through a specific point

We've had a few requests from students around how to find the equation of a line which passes through a specific point, and has a certain slope (gradient), within the Faculty of Health and Science, Dept of Science and Technology.

For example, their practical problems (Basic Algebra 4), sheet includes 9 questions. The following video walks through one method which is nice and straight forward.

If you've been struggling with your approach, perhaps the following will help. The equation you need to provide is slope-intercept equation which is calculated at the end of the video.



If you have any questions, please contact Learning Services (learningservices@ucs.ac.uk)

Student request: Help solving simultaneous equations

We've had a few requests from students around how to solve simultaneous numbers, within the Faculty of Health and Science, Dept of Science and Technology.

For example, their practical problems (Basic Algebra 3), sheet includes 30 questions. The following video walks through one method which is nice and straight forward. If you've been struggling with your approach, perhaps the following will help.

If you have any questions, please contact Learning Services (learningservices@ucs.ac.uk)