Description
Description
Module Content
This core module is designed to provide students on the Human Evolution and Behaviour MSc course with key skills in quantitative research and practice. Although the module requires students to have a background in reading and understanding quantitative research it requires no specific prior knowledge of statistics. Students will be introduced to the basics of research practice, work with relevant data sets from biological anthropology, and will gain foundational skills in the open-source statistical computing language R.
Indicative Topics:
The module will cover the following topics, which may be subject to variation depending on developments in academic research and the interests of the class:
- Introduction to scientific research methods
- Basic coding in the R language
- Data wrangling
- Understanding data
- Descriptive statistics
- Introduction to inferential statistics
- Introduction to research ethics
Planning data collection
Learning Outcomes
Having completed the module, students will:
- Have a good understanding of scientific research methods, including key issues around ethical research practice and data/methodological limitations.Ìý
- Have a good level of proficiency in coding using the R statistical language, including the ability to code independently.
- Understand the conceptual basis of statistical analyses, and be able to conduct simple statistical tests in R.
- Interpret and communicate statistical findings appropriately.
Ìý
Indicative Module delivery
One 2 hour practical lecture per week.
Ìý
Ìý
Please note the assessment titles may be subject to change.
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.
Ìý