Statistics and Survey Training
The Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL) provides evening training sessions, instructing participants on how to use and interpret statistical software and how to develop an online survey. Training sessions are open to University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty, instructors, staff, and students on a first-come, first-served basis. Training session dates and times are announced within the first few weeks of the Fall and Spring semesters. We typically offer one meeting time per training session.
Please note you must be registered in order to attend training sessions. If you have questions about your registration status please contact citl-statstraining@illinois.edu.
We recommend users download required data when using either the online tutorial or PDF workbook so they may follow along and work through practice exercises included at the end of each section. Links to training guides and data are included in the sections below.
Recordings of previous training sessions and selected software guides are available on our MediaSpace channel.
Note: We do not offer certificates for training session attendance.
Fall 2025 Training Sessions
LOCATION: Armory Building, Room 146
DATES: Tuesday, September 23, 2025
TIME: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
After attending the R workshop, you will be able to understand:
- Basic R syntax
- Common R packages
- Importing data sets from other software such as SPSS, Excel, and Stata
- Computing new variables and recoding variables
- Creating frequency and contingency tables
- Obtaining univariate statistics
- Handling output
LOCATION: Armory Building, Room 146
DATES: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
TIME: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
This course will show you how to run the most common bivariate statistical analyses in R. Topics covered include:
- Chi-square and Fisher's exact test
- Two-Independent samples t-test
- One-way ANOVA
- Bivariate correlation
- Bivariate regression
- Multivariate regression
LOCATION: Armory Building, Room 146
DATES: Wednesday, September 24, 2025
TIME: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
After attending the Python I workshop, you will be able to understand:
- Navigating and working with Jupyter notebooks
- Basic Python syntax
- Common data types (including manipulation and conversion)
- Conditional statements
- Using Pandas for importing datasets from other software such as SPSS, Excel, and Stata
- Obtaining univariate statistics and multivariate tables
LOCATION: Armory Building, Room 146
DATES: Wednesday, October 1, 2025
TIME: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
After attending the Python workshop, you will be able to understand:
- Loops
- Creating and recoding variables in Pandas
- Creating multivariate tables
- Using SciPy for inferential statistics
- Using Matplotlib for visualization
- Handling output
LOCATION: Armory Building, Room 146
DATES: Tuesday, October 7, 2025
TIME: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
This workshop will cover the basics on gathering data using Qualtrics. The goals of the workshop will include:
- Basic infrastructure
- Survey design
- Survey logic
- Security and consent
- Distribution and data export
Please note: For hands-on experience, you will need an active Qualtrics account before the workshop. Please log into illinois.qualtrics.com to access your campus Qualtrics account.
LOCATION: Armory Building, Room 146
DATES: Tuesday, October 14, 2025
TIME: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
This workshop will cover more advanced Qualtrics functionality and topics. The goals of the workshop will include:
- Review: Consent and security
- Survey design
- Survey flow
- Distribution and data collection
- Groups
Please note: For hands-on experience, you will need an active Qualtrics account before the workshop. Please log into illinois.qualtrics.com to access your campus Qualtrics account.
LOCATION: Armory Building, Room 146
DATES: Wednesday, October 8, 2025
TIME: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
STATA is a small but powerful menu- and syntax-driven statistical package for managing, analyzing, graphing data, as well as for creating programs and macros. After attending the Introduction to STATA for Windows, you will be able to:
- Open STATA software, set up the size of memory, and open an existing data set
- Understand the layout and use of STATA's windows
- Obtain descriptive statistics and frequency tables
- Transform and manipulate variables using generate and recode
- Create and edit graphs
- Save and print output by using a log file
LOCATION: Armory Building, Room 146
DATES: Wednesday, October 14, 2025
TIME: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
This course will show you how to run the most common bivariate statistical analyses in STATA. Topics covered include:
- Chi-square and Fisher's exact test
- Two-Independent samples t-test
- One-way ANOVA
- Bivariate correlation
- Bivariate regression
- Multivariate regression
LOCATION: Armory Building, Room 146
DATES: Tuesday, October 21, 2025
TIME: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
SPSS is a user-friendly program that allows you to conduct statistical analyses through simple point-and-click menu items. This is an introductory course where you will learn the basic menu options and will be useful for people who have never used SPSS before. Topics covered include:
- Introduction to data editor and variable view environments
- Changing SPSS options
- Computing new variables
- Variable banding
- Recoding variables
- Creating frequency and contingency tables
- Obtaining univariate statistics, bar charts, and pie charts
- Handling SPSS output
LOCATION: Armory Building, Room 146
DATES: Tuesday, October 28, 2025
TIME: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
This course will show you how to run the most common bivariate statistical analyses in SPSS. Topics covered include:
- Chi-square
- T-Tests
- One-way ANOVA
- Bivariate Correlation
- Bivariate Regression
- Multivariate Regression
LOCATION: Armory Building, Room 146
DATES: Wednesday, October 22, 2025
TIME: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
The SAS program is a syntax-driven statistical and data management program used in many different professional and academic disciplines. It has a reputation for being difficult to learn at first, so let us help you get ahead of the curve with this introductory course. Topics covered include:
- Introduction to SAS windows
- Creating and defining libraries
- Basic SAS syntax
- Computing new variables
- Recoding variables
- Creating frequency and contingency tables
- Obtaining univariate statistics
- Handling SAS output
LOCATION: Armory Building, Room 146
DATES: Wednesday, October 29, 2025
TIME: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
This course will show you how to run the most common bivariate statistical analyses in SAS. Topics covered include:
- Chi-square
- Independent Samples T-Tests
- One-way ANOVA
- Bivariate Correlation
- Bivariate Regression
- Multivariate Regression
Previously Taught Training Sessions
LOCATION:
DATE: Not offered by CITL this semester; see Workshops offered by the Library
TIME:
ATLAS.ti is a qualitative data analysis program that allows you to track large amounts of data in a meaningful and systematic way. It is designed to help manage and analyze non-numerical data such as text, video, audio, and graphics. ATLAS.ti can be understood as a tool that facilitates the integration of data description, analysis, and interpretation. In the course of qualitative research, which often involves analysis of complex phenomena, the program offers tools to manage, extract, compare, and explore data. The goals of this workshop are to:
- Learn about the methodological principles behind ATLAS.ti.
- Open ATLAS.ti software and import textual documents.
- Understand the layout of the ATLAS.ti environment.
- Learn the fundamental functions of ATLAS.ti for data description, exploration, analysis, and interpretation.
- Learn how to print, save, and export output.
LOCATION:
DATE: Not Offered This Semester
TIME:
Come for some general information about how to write good online survey questions. You'll receive advice based upon the latest research in questionnaire design, and a bit about options for administering online surveys. Feel free to bring your own questionnaires and we'll reserve some time at the end to discuss your specific questions.