II-a: Introduction to Quantitative Data Analysis

workshop pitch

description

What if you could easily understand the “important message” hidden in the data you spent week collecting for the evaluation of an important development program? What if you could convince, decision makers, donors, with “evidence-based findings” and “easy to understand” visualization tools of the way forward of an evaluation of interest?

Well, you have chosen the right workshop. This workshop provides you with the necessary tools to do just that. In fact, this workshop introduces participants to the basics of descriptive as well as of inferential statistics. The discussion includes measurement scales, descriptive statistics, official statistics, benchmarking, bivariate statistic, contingency tables, ANOVA, linear regressions cluster and factor analysis.

Through this workshop you will learn how to analyze your valuable data using well tested techniques and data visualization tools to present your findings in an easy and attractive way. This in turn make your findings user-friendly for the beneficiary, donors and other stakeholders
The workshop uses real life case studies and group work along with lectures to give you a vivid experience of the both the fun and challenge that quantitative data analysis of real-world evaluation data presents.

objectives

The goal of this workshop is to improve your skills in quantitative data analysis and visualization. At the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

• know how to make evidence-based decision using the various descriptive statistics;
• perform basic inference using correlation analysis and contingency tables;
• know how to find the “treasures” hidden in a given data set;
• develop awareness of several free web-based and Excel tools used in data visualization;
• present his or her “findings” in an easy to use manner.

recommended for

This workshop is intended for data analysts, researchers, M&E professionals and individuals who want to refresh their knowledge in quantitative data analysis and visualization. It may also be of interest to policymakers as well as those who commission evaluations. They will better understand of the resources needed to conduct high quality data analysis and dissemination of findings of an evaluation.

level

This is a basic to an intermediate level workshop and the treatment of the various topics is conceptual and practical. A lot of hands-on help participants practice and understand the various concepts.

prerequisites

To be able to participate in this workshop, participants are required to:

• have a good experience / knowledge of various evaluation methods;
• possess an intermediate level of MS. Excel and Power Point Presentation;
• be able to work in a team open-minded.