About the Module
We live in times when intuition has minimal or no role to play in decision making in all sectors of society.  Strengthening the evidence base for decision making in developing countries is now more important than ever before.  The decision-makers often need statistics – a subject in which a number of people are not well grounded.   This is exacerbated by the professionals not using their statistical knowledge regularly to gain the required confidence.  This module provides the student the opportunity to put into use, recent developments in the subject including the use of statistical software for the analysis of data.  The module intends to make the subject more accessible and relevant.

This module can also be taken as a prequalification for a masters’ level degree in statistics and related studies.  The participant will learn and practice the skills necessary for statistical data analysis.  The module adapts a balanced approach, including a theoretical underpinning, analytical tools and practical application of the learning.  It will put less emphasis on hand calculations in order to allow students more time to understand the key concepts and computer outputs.  The data used for practical sessions will be realistically sized data sets.

Module Objectives
The ultimate aim of the module is to provide participants with the ability to:
•    To manage data
•    To analyze data using statistical software
•    To interpret results of a statistical analysis objectively

Admission Requirements
To be eligible for registration for the module, the student must provide evidence of an academic qualification of at least or equivalent to:
•    a Diploma of Maseno University;  
•    at least grade C aggregate at KCSE plus experience in a data handling environment.
The ultimate target groups are research students and any other person who is required to collect and analyse data and then interpret and report their findings

Module structure
This module is offered on the Learning Management System at the e-Campus, Maseno University as an on-line course. A pre-requisite for an on-line course provided by the e- Campus is a one – week long “Orientation to e-Learning” course.  This course is to enable participants navigate the e – Learning portal with ease.  During the Orientation course participants will be guided on installing R, a statistical package on their computers for the practical sessions.  

Duration of the Program
The module has 7 topics which run for 10 weeks.

Module Content
Topic 1:   Basic Statistics
Topic 2:   Exploratory Data Analysis
Topic 3:   Descriptive Statistics
Topic 4:   Sampling Distribution of Statistics
Topic 5:   Statistical Inference
Topic 6:   Introduction to Modeling
Topic 7:   Writing a Statistical Report

Mode of Delivery
On-line