Statistics and Research Methodology: Authoring, Multimedia, and Automation of Social Science Research

Abstract

People with training specifically in research methods and statistics can usually find their way through the pull-down menus, icons, and help screens and accomplish their intended tasks. But for those who do not have the training, or who need a refresher course in methods and statistics there is still a fairly steep learning curve before they feel comfortable using the new statistics and research methods tools. It is the premise of this article that with (I) the easier to use authoring software; (2) the newly popular and inexpensive multimedia capabilities of sound, ammation, pictures, and motion video; and (3) the ability to link software operations into an automated whole, practitioners of statistics and research methods can craft what will be called assistance software that will allow the undertrained and untrained to accomplish statistics and research methods successfully. Keywords. multimedia, audio, motion video, video capture, automation, visualization, computerized research, social science research methods, changing research methods, research process, computerized data analysis, software linkages, graphics, analytical graphics, presentation graphics, charting graphics, data storage, data retrieval.