“So what?” Dr Shamala Ramasamy posed the question to the room of students. The question is asked in relation to the purpose of research, as in the implications of the results of the study. Critically, the implications of research can influence things such as policy, management, and marketing. Statistical analysis is the groundwork in making informed decisions. Therefore, knowledge in this topic is important for all fields, especially healthcare, where the implications include how people are cared for.
On the evening of 5 July 2017, Dr Shamala Ramasamy, PhD holder from Education at Asia e University, and current lecturer in the Department of Psychology of IMU, spoke about the Fundamentals of Statistics for Professionals in an enlightening talk about the importance, implications, and the various techniques used in statistics and data analysis. Ultimately, she hoped that the hour long talk, though short compared to her usual workshops, could capture the essence of statistics and benefit all the listeners present.
Foremost, she outlined how the process of research can influence the direction and method. After which she highlighted the importance in having reliable and valid instruments, so as to ensure that data obtained is consistent over time and is accurately measured. Otherwise, any results obtained may be held in doubt and everything done during the research would not matter. To assist with this, she went through the various methods to gauge for the reliability and validity of the instruments, such as Cronbach’s Alpha, criterion validity, and others.
| Dr Shamala followed up with explanations on the different ways that studies can be done, and how data collection should be structured around them. All the topics discussed in this talk aim to ensure that results obtained from research depict and describe reality accurately, without bias, and ethically. |
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