Are Practical Training of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Effective on Research Competence among University Students?

Abstract

Purpose: The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the practical SPSS training on students’ research competency among undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Nairobi, Lower Kabete Campus. Methodology: The study adopted a casual research design to establish the relationship between practical SPSS training and research competence of students. The target population was 160 students and a census was adopted. A questionnaire was administered at the end of the training to capture the pre and post training experience and test the effectiveness of the training. The analysis of the data was conducted through descriptive and inferential statistics. In particular, frequencies, means, standard deviations and paired t-test were used. Findings: The post training evaluation results reveal that majority of the respondents had low knowledge in data entry, descriptive statistics, regression and correlation analysis, parametric and non-parametric analysis, and journal article extraction and publication. Results also reveal that the level of knowledge significantly increased after the training. This is supported by the paired t-tests conducted on each aspect of training. Conclusion: Practical SPSS training on students’ research competency among University students is very effective. Recommendations: It is recommended that practical SPSS training be made compulsory for all students pursuing research related courses in Universities. Universities should also consider supporting the training financially or the students to be requested to pay a token fee to make the training sustainable. Other financing approaches to enhance sustainability include having the consultant seeking funding from the National Research Fund.