Using Excel to Tame Basic Data

A seminar to show you some of the tricks and tips you need to make MS Excel an effective tool for processing research data. 

Whether data is numeric, textual, alphanumeric or spatial, you will learn ways to manage data in a simple and efficient a way as possible.

Research students often gather data from unusual sources, but come to the analysis stage of their thesis without knowing how to use advanced statistical tools. They don’t realise that tools such as SPSS are not always necessary to quickly create powerful reports and visualisations of the data they have collected. There are simple and straightforward ways of meaningfully processing data by using Excel, a tool that is readily available in the kit bag of any student.

Who is this for?
This session is perfect for students in areas such as humanities and social science who want to learn data analysis methods while bypassing advanced software packages or elaborate coding.

What to bring:
There’s no need to bring a laptop or your thesis along. You will be given a handout with content suiting windows, but the content is transferable to new versions of Word for Mac. You may wish to bring a laptop to take notes or follow along at your own pace.

Learning outcomes:

On completion of the seminar participants should be able to easily and efficiently do the following:

• Sort data and records using excel
• Join columns and fields of data
• Split texts into columns
• Filter and isolating columns
• Convert text to table, and table to text
• Convert tables to maps
• Create quick reports or overviews

Your presenter:
Michael McBain originally worked in scientific publishing, but subsequently went on to a career as a faculty and research manager in several Victorian universities, including the University of Melbourne. He maintains his interest in publishing, and has taught word and thesis courses for over twenty years, during which he has revamped and tamed over fifty doctoral theses. He has been loosely involved with public ‘big data’ projects like GovHack, Melbourne Open Data, and ‘Shut Up and Hack’. He holds degrees in science, arts, information management, and spatial science.

By registering for this seminar, you are committing to attendance.

If you fail to attend without notifying us of compelling reasons we reserve the right to limit your attendance to other programs at GSA. Please read the program terms and conditions.

The charge for this subsidised program covers some of the presenter’s fees. By paying it you are generously helping support GSA and sponsoring more programs for graduate students.

If you have any queries please email programs@gsa.unimelb.edu.au.