Data Analysis & Reporting

By Tyler McClain
Office of Research and Strategic Initiatives

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Table of Contents
Introduction 1

Key Definitions 1

Quantitative Data Analysis 2

Qualitative Data Analysis 4

Data Reporting 6

Conclusion 7

References 7
Introduction
Data collection is over; you have the data. But, now how can you make the most meaning of the information
you have? First, you must analyze the data and second, you must be able to report on it in a way that
makes sense to your audience. Often you might hear analysis and reporting used as though they were
interchangeable terms. While both might draw upon the same collected data, analysis and reporting are very
different in terms of their purpose, required skills, tasks, tools and value.

This eBook includes the following:

•• Key Definitions

•• Quantitative Data Analysis

•• Descriptive Statistics
•• Inferential Statistics
•• Commonly Used Tools

•• Qualitative Data Analysis

•• Pre-Set Themes
•• Emergent Themes
•• The Process of Coding
•• Telling the Story
•• Commonly Used Tools

•• Data Reporting
•• Commonly Used Tools
•• Selecting a Reporting Method

What is Assessment?

Assessment is a systematic process to acquire an accurate, thorough, picture of the strengths and
weaknesses of a program, department, or division.

Check out our other eBooks on Assessment!

Definitions
Data Analysis Data Reporting
Data analysis is the process of exploring data in order to extract Data reporting is the process of organizing data into informational
meaningful insights. summaries in order to share with stakeholders.

Quantitative Data Qualitative Data

Quantitative data is numerical data that can be specific or Qualitative data is data not in numerical form but that is
generalizable depending on the sample. Data can be measured descriptive in nature. Qualitative data is often collected by using
through statistics and displayed through graphs and charts. methodologies such as interviews, focus groups, and surveys/
evaluations with open-ended responses, making meaning from text
and/or narrative.

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 Quantitative Data Analysis

Descriptive Statistics
Descriptive statistics is the term given to the analysis of data that helps describe, show or summarize data in a meaningful way such that,
for example, patterns might emerge from the data. Descriptive statistics can help you understand the basic features of the data set that
you are analyzing (Trochim, 2006).

Mean
•• The average score
•• Representative of every value in a data set TIP
•• Minimizes error in the prediction of any one value in a data set
•• Influenced by outliers in the data, this is considered a main Coursera and Lynda.com are great learning
disadvantage resources for those who need to develop a
basic knowledge of statistics or learn advanced
Median computer skills that allow for the utilization of
statistical language or spreadsheet software.
•• The middle score

•• Less affected by outliers and skewed data

Mode
•• The most frequently reoccurring score
•• Used with categorical data to know which is the most common category
•• Can be misleading when data is continuous or when the mode is far away from the rest of the data set

Standard Deviation
•• The amount of variation or spread of scores within a set of data
•• Used to make generalizations about the population from which your sample data set was derived

EXAMPLE

Student leaders answer a set of questions on a scale of 1-10 about their ability to lead a group. Using descriptive statistics you
will be able to better understand the overall set of data that you have collected. This information could allow you to better
understand how you can enhance or maintain student leaders abilities to lead others.

•• Discovering the mean will allow you to understand the average rating that student leaders placed on their ability to lead a
group. Knowing this you can determine how many scores fall above and below this average and gauge where each individual
is in comparison to the group.

•• The median would tell you what the middle most score was out of your entire set of data collected for each question asked.
Knowing this would help you understand how evenly distributed your data set is by comparing the median to the mean. When
they are not similar it is likely that the data set is either skewed to the left or right.

•• The mode would tell you what the most frequently reoccurring score was for your student leaders for each question. Knowing
this would improve your understanding of what the most popular ability rating is among your student leaders, where are most
of them rating their ability to lead a group.

•• Knowing the standard deviation for each question would allow you to understand how close or far away from the mean is
each student’s ability rating, i.e. is it one standard deviation different.

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Inferential Statistics
Inferential statistics are techniques that allow us to use samples to make generalizations about the populations from which the samples
were drawn. Inferential statistics are used to understand what the sample data set that you are analyzing could tell you about the
population that it was drawn from (Trochim, 2006).

T-Test
A T-Test allows you to compare average performance between to
TIP groups to determine if they are different from each other.

Connect with your campus institutional research Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

or assessment office for training on how to
ANOVA is used to analyze difference among group means, it tells
effectively engage in analysis as and use you if the means of several groups are equal and reduces the
campus-supported software. increased chance of a statistical type 1 error that is caused by
running multiple t-tests.

EXAMPLE

Suppose that you were using the same set of leadership ability questions from the example above but you want to understand if
there is a real difference in reported ability between first-year and second-year students. You could utilize a t-test to discover if
there is a real difference, statistical significance, in scores between these two groups or if the difference is just due to chance.

Commonly Used Tools

IMB SPSS
SPSS is predictive analytics software that can be used to organize, clean, filter, sort and run statistical analysis
on data sets.
Click here to read more.

R
R is free software for statistical computing and graphics that can be used to organize, clean, filter, sort and
run statistical analysis on data sets.
Click here to read more.

Social Sciences Statistics

This web site currently features a number of statistical test calculators that you might find useful. The calculators
are designed to be easy to use - normally requiring only that you input your data and press a button.
Click here to read more.

Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet-based software that can be used to organize, clean, filter, sort, and compare
data sets. This software is commonly available on computers provided by colleges and universities.
Click here to read more.

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 Qualitative Data Analysis

Pre-Set Themes
Are determined based on your prior knowledge of the subject, research questions, problem areas, and conceptual framework. Creating
this list is recommended to help guide the start of the coding process (Gibbs, 2007).

Emergent Themes
This set of themes or codes emerges from reading and analyzing the data. They are concepts, ideas, actions, and meanings that are
different from the pre-set themes (Gibbs, 2007).

The Process of Coding

An easy way to think about coding is to see it as a process for
organizing your data. Coding is essentially creating a set of
EXAMPLE
organized files that are representative of a data set. To avoid
confusion it is helpful to use words or short phrases as codes
in your marginal notes. These notes will help to create a master
Your semester long program requires students
codebook for a data set. Throughout the coding process you
to reflect using online discussion boards. At the
will naturally begin to refine the codes that have emerged by
end of the semester you organize each question
adding new codes or collapsing current codes into larger ones.
and the responses to being the coding process.
You also might find that so much data is represented under a
Based on the questions asked you can create
single code that sub-codes need to be used to make the data
pre-set themes to help guide the coding process.
more manageable. The questions below are examples of guiding
Throughout your coding process you add,
questions that you can ask yourself during the coding process
combine, and create sub-themes for each of the
(Gibbs, 2007).
questions to determine what the main takeaways
from your program were for the student
•• What is this saying?
participants. Utilizing the organized list of themes
•• What does this represent?
you can determine if students met the intended
•• What is this an example of?
learning outcomes for the program, as well as any
•• What do I see is going on here?
extra outcomes that they might have developed
•• What is happening here?
from their experience in your program.
•• What is trying to be conveyed?

Telling the Story

It is important to think about the story that you want to communicate with your data and strategize how you are going to do this
through the coding process. Coding without a strategy can cause lack of coherence and essential a waste of time. This is why it is so
important to think about the purpose of your study and build such a strategy (Gibbs, 2007).

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Commonly Used Tools

Paid Tools

NVivo
NVivo enables you to collect, organize and analyze content from interviews, focus group discussions, surveys,
audio, social media, videos and webpages.
Click here to read more.

ATLASti
Is a powerful qualitative data analysis program. You can explore, interconnect, and analyze in depth all your
data sources - text, images, audio, video, and even geodata.
Click here to read more.

Open Source Tools

Coding Analysis Toolkit (CAT)

CAT is a free service of the Qualitative Data Analysis Program (QDAP), and hosted by the University Center
for Social and Urban Research, at the University of Pittsburgh, and QDAP-UMass, in the College of Social and
Behavioral Sciences, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Click here to read more.

Text Analysis Markup System (TAMS)

It is a convention for identifying themes in texts (web pages, interviews, field notes).
Click here to read more.

Transana
Transana is software for qualitative researchers who want to analyze video, auditory, and still image data.
Click here to read more.

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 Data Reporting (Adapted from Communicating Evaluation Results 2015)

Selecting a Reporting Method

There are many ways to report your data, but it is important to remember the “less is often more.” It is important to make sure your data
is accessible and understandable to your audience.

Common questions you might ask yourself when selecting a reporting method:
•• Who is your audience?
•• Are there multiple audiences?
•• What type of information does your audience need and why do they need it?
•• What could be the possible uses of the information?
•• When is the most critical time for the audience to have the information?
•• What would be the most helpful way to display the information?

Printed Reports
Written reports can be comprised of abstracts and briefings, annual reports, fact sheets, empirical publications,
and newsletters.

Oral Reports
Oral reports include verbal presentations of the findings.

Visual Reports
These methods of reporting include presentations, exhibits, news releases, and posters.

Digital Reports
Digital reports are shared through the Internet and can be a dedicated website or virtual issue of a publication that
showcases data findings.

Commonly Used Tools

Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet-based software that can be used to create summary tables, charts, and
graphs for data reporting.

Adobe Photoshop/InDesign
Both of these Adobe products are graphic design software used for the creation of digital images.

Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote

Both of these software programs are utilized to create visual slide decks of findings from data analysis.

PiktoChart
A low cost, easy to use online tool for creating info graphics.
Click here to read more.

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 Conclusion

There are many tools designed for and ways to conduct data analysis. Reporting findings or dominant themes
can also be done using different tools to create reports and shared in variety of ways. Knowing this, it is
important to partner with individuals who know how to use statistical software for data analysis or know how
to engage in data analysis and reporting.

References
Communicating Evaluation Results. (2015). Retrieved June 19, 2015, from https://cyfernetsearch.org/ilm_7_1

Gibbs, G. (2007). Analyzing qualitative data. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

Trochim, W. (2006). Social Research Methods. Retrieved June 19, 2015, from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/

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