Statistics…again

As I neared my final semester this past May, with only one course to take, I decided that the Visualizing Big Data course simply didn’t give me enough of a Statistics refresher. So what did I do? I decided to join my (really smart) classmate in Biostatistics for Public Health 1 while also trying to muddle my way through my last required course, Introduction to Library Administration and Management. I now find myself struggling insanely with the work and with only four weeks and three days to go I am actually worried about getting the required ‘B’ in the course so that I can graduate in August.

Argh, what was I thinking! I have not had a math course in almost thirty years and I had no idea how difficult it would be in the online environment. I spend an hour on each problem simply because I don’t remember how to do calculations that used to come easily to me. I long for a classroom with a teacher and a good old-fashioned chalk board, walking us through every calcualtion.

The good news is I am learning something! While I don’t always have a clear idea of why we would use one test over another, I am learning how to apply the tests to various types of data. I also have more knowledge of how to set up the research initially by planning the data, analyzing the variable types and creating a code book before data collection even begins. This will be extremely useful in planning my own research and also if I get to assist any researchers with data management plans in that dream academic/medical library job. The course is a crash course in clinical study and public health research terminology as well. Most fun is getting to play around with SPSS Statistical software. Another class, another tool!