Do you want to start making better choices at work, when investing, and in life-based on more critical thinking, having the skills to summarize vast quantities of data? Or, in simple words, do you want to see the world more clearly? Congratulations: you’re in the right place. With this statistics course, you’re about to learn to question the numbers and intuitive biases in various situations. Statistics are fun. You’ll be fascinated by how practical the skills in statistical thinking can be! Enroll in the course, and let’s learn the statistics basics to see the world more objectively.
Humans have wiped out 60% of animals! 9 out of 10 dentists recommend using this particular toothpaste! These are statements that involve numbers and statistics. But are they true? Can you trust data visualizations? To stay away from the mass-media shaping your view towards the world and what you know about it, it’s a good idea to get a proper introduction to statistics so that you’re not that easy to fool.
Imagine you’re an officer in World War 2, and you’re in charge of airplane weaponry and armor. You’re trying to figure out how to armor planes efficiently without making them too heavy. So you study the aircraft when they come back and start recording where they’ve been shot. After analyzing all the data, you see there are more bullet holes in the body, wings, fuel system, and not as many on the engines. You’ll think the best way to protect the planes is to reinforce those areas that are hit the most. That’s a real-world task. However, an experienced statistician said to put the armor where there were no bullet holes – on the engines. This sounds counterintuitive to non-statisticians, but there was a good reason for this advice. What that means is that only the surviving planes had few bullet holes on the engines, but what about those that never came back? We are systematically relying on the surviving data, missing the whole picture. And in such way, we’re lead into bias. That’s where statistical thinking comes into usable power!
I’ve tried to make this statistics course as engaging as possible by using animations, exercises, quizzes, referring to further readings, etc. There will be very little maths – the focus will be rather on the intuition and practical use of statistics for making better judgments and decisions. Here’s a quick overview of the main topics included:
Learning statistics basics can be the first step towards seeing the world a little bit more objectively. It’s a lot like detective’s work. Instincts are not a very good guide in trying to interpret the statistics. It’s going further from your automatic gut feeling and stopping to think and question the number that you see. Statistics for beginners is something that will change the way you view the world. Enroll in this statistics course today with no delay!
Course consist of total 3h 19min of content, in total.
Economics for a Better World (EBW) is here to help you improve your understanding of the world, offering courses in a plethora of topics related to studying economics.
EBW believes that the value in studying economics doesn’t come from its advanced and highly mathematical theories, but how it can improve the way you see the world, your reasoning, and decision making. In this spirit, EBW is dedicated to providing courses that are both ‘pluralist’ (learning from a range of perspectives) yet also accessible to non-economists.
Economics can help shed light on topics we all care about: individual behaviour, the role of government, inequality, the environment, and poverty to name a few. It is with this in mind that EBW was born.
Whether you want to learn something new from scratch, want to refresh your memory of something you’ve learned in the past, or simply expand your horizons; you’ve come to the right place.