Intellectus Statistics Paradigm Shift from SPSS and other Legacy Statistics Packages

A paradigm shift is a fundamental shift in the way things are approached. Using Intellectus Statistics, there are three paradigm shifts from how students and researchers typically approach and use a statistics package: ease of analyses, depth of understanding, and organization of the findings report.

Ease of analyses. Legacy programs require that users be conversant with all of the assumptions, graphs, and statistics buttons required to simply to conduct an analysis. Intellectus is a paradigm shift in that all of the assumptions, graphs, and statistics required are preloaded in each of the statistical analyses. A 2015 study (Orfanou, Tselios, and Katsanos, 2015) reported that “perceived usability greatly affects students learning effectiveness and overall learning experience.” The System Usability Scale (SUS) is a widely used, well-researched survey for perceived usability evaluation. Chen, Moran, Sun, and Vu (2018) assessed overall Perceived Usability using the SUS scores where SPSS was compared to Intellectus Statistics. Their findings indicated that participants rated Intellectus significantly more usable than SPSS.

Depth of understanding. Should the assumptions, graphs, and statistics required of a statistical analysis be properly found and executed, legacy programs leave users with the challenge of accurately interpreting the output. Intellectus is a paradigm shift in that it interprets quantitative output in plain English and the graphs include scroll-overs to assist with accurate interpretation.  For example, scrolling over the Figure 1 Q-Q scatterplot would present the four plots and description to the right of it where users could relate figure 1 to a non-normal, discrete scatterplot.

Organization of report. Legacy programs, like SPSS and others, provide raw, uninterpreted output, leaving to users to interpret that output and narratively explain the findings, plug in the figures in the correct place, and select the correct information from the output to include in the tables.  Intellectus Statistics drafts results in a logical, organized manner. The report starts with an introduction to the analysis, the goal of the analysis, and the variables used. The report then presents the assumptions of the analysis and presents the tables and figures. Next, the results of the analysis, with corresponding tables, figures, and post-hoc tests, are reported. Finally, the APA references of each of the in-text citations are presented.

Conclusion. Paradigm shifts in data analyses are individuals approaching, conducting, interpreting, and reporting analyses in a fresh way. Intellectus Statistics shifts the way students conduct analyses, understand their output, and organize their report.

References

Bangor, A., Kortum, P. T., & Miller, J. T.: An empirical evaluation of the system usability scale. Intl. Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 24(6), 574-594 (2008).

Chen, A.C., Moran, S., Yuting Sun, Y., & Vu, K.L. (In press). 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.

Orfanou, K., Tselios, N., & Katsanos, C. (2015). Perceived Usability Evaluation of Learning Management Systems: Empirical Evaluation of the System Usability Scale.  The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (Vol 16, No.2).