MOOC from #futurelearn - Making Sense of Data in the Media

The Sheffield Methods Institute (based at my own University, the University of Sheffield, UK) is running once more a three week MOOC, starting on November 6 2017: Making Sense of Data in the Media. You can follow and participate in the MOOC for free, but if you want access to the material after the course is finished, or if you want a completion certificate, you have to pay a fee of £32. "The course is created by the Sheffield Method’s Institute, part of the Q-Step Programme which is dedicated to improving understanding of quantitative social science skills in the UK and abroad. To learn more about the course, watch the trailer and sign up for free please visit the course page here."
Topics are: Recognising the ‘size’ of numbers that are reported in the media; How change and risk are reported; How social statistics are created, paying particular attention to survey data; What we can learn from census categories; the different ways that surveys can be conducted and the impact that different formats can have on the results; How to draw a representative sample from a population.; Sources of measurement error in surveys; Measuring sensitive or difficult subjects; Checking whether data is trustworthy by reviewing the methodology; How to calculate the Margin of Sampling Error (MoSE); The difference between correlation and causation; Where to find existing sources of data; How to develop a quantitative research project.
Go to https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/media-data/
Photo by Sheila webber: autumn, Sheffield, October 2017