Five Reasons To Use Intellectus When SPSS Is Free*

Category

Educational Technology

Learning statistics and conducting quantitative analyses is challenging to most students, leading institutions to look for the best tools available. These institutions also desire a reduced faculty workload which encourages them to conduct more of their own research. Given these objectives, here are five reasons to use Intellectus Statistics as the preferred statistics tool over SPSS: time savings, decreased student learning curve, zero-dollar faculty training costs, efficiency of findings, and an integrated statistics course.

  1. Time saving.  Faculty report saving 40 hours/semester teaching statistics by not having to explain how to navigate SPSS and interpret SPSS output. Additionally, faculty mentors report saving 4.5 hours/ student when overseeing a dissertation or scholarly project. This free time can be spent conducting their own research or taking a COVID mental health break.
  2. Decreased learning curve.  Chen, Moran, Sun & Vu (2018) found Perceived Usability and Ease of Use rating statistically higher for Intellectus compared to SPSS. These participants preferred Intellectus and felt more confident in conducting statistical analysis compared to SPSS. Students and faculty use simple tools.
  3. $0 training costs.  When faculty and departments adopt Intellectus, faculty training is free. We review faculty’s syllabus with them and ensure they are comfortable with uploading, conducting, and interpreting the output, as well as using the built-in decision tree, data plans, and power analysis. Faculty development is totally free.
  4. Efficiency of findings.  Intellectus Statistics is not only easier to use, rigorous in its analyses, but the tool leverages technology to format the findings in APA 7th style—tables, figures, & references.  The technology allows the drafting of findings 10x more quickly than SPSS. Further, the combination of automated assumptions and interpreted Autodrafted results ensure rigor is part of their research findings. With these efficiencies, faculty conduct more research.
  5. Integrated statistics course.  Intellectus provides the Stats 1 Course option—an online, 9 module (50 lesson) interactive statistics course offering an e-text, embedded videos, practice, quizzes, and online assessment with auto-grade return. Students will not only learn how and why to conduct tests, but how to accurately interpret statistical output. Intellectus’ complete solution results in better student learning.

While there are way more than 5 reasons to use Intellectus, overall it frees-up faculty time, makes the learning of statistics easier, reduces frustration, and provides the teaching of statistics in an integrated, seamless process. To learn more about benefits of Intellectus, please contact us.

*Note. IBM’s SPSS is not literally free. Given an institutional purchase, SPSS typically does not directly affect a department’s budget, so it is occasionally perceived as “free” at the department level. 

Reference

Chen, A.C., Moran, S., Yuting Sun, Y., & Vu, K.L. (2018). Comparison of Intellectus Statistics and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Differences in User Performance based on Presentation of Statistical Data. Proceedings of the 2018 Human Computer Interaction International conference.  DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-91122-9_32