Corporate Affiliations Consulting About Us Contact Us

Introductory Statistics Software

Each course has specific guidance concerning software.  Below, we provide more general information about software that might possibly be used in an intro-level course.  However, you should stick to the software recommended in your course description, unless you have a good reason for doing otherwise.

Mac user? Be sure to check the web site of the software you want to use, to determine whether it supports Macs.

  1. Box Sampler is an Excel add-in with a visual interface for doing simulation and resampling operations. Developed by Cytel Inc., it is now owned and distributed by Statistics.com as unsupported freeware.  Box Sampler's use is illustrated in some of the introductory statistics courses at statistics.com.  Requirements:  Windows, Excel 2003 or later (32-bit version only).  Download the installable file here.  Documentation is here.

  2. Resampling Stats is powerful tool for doing Excel-based resampling and simulation operations.  Owned and distributed by Statistics.com, it is provided to students in Statistics.com courses at no charge for a full year, and for longer periods at very affordable rates.  Requirements:  Windows, Excel 2003 or later (32-bit version only).  Download the installation file here.

  3. JMP is a user friendly product from SAS, available on reasonable terms. The textbook offers brief tips and JMP offers both a live tutorial every Friday at 1:00 p.m.EST, and a recorded version of the webcast.
    - Suitable for a beginner with no software preference; offers a wide range of capabilities and links to SAS.

  4. StatCrunch is web-based software available at very inexpensive rates.
    - Suitable for a beginner with no software preference and the desire to have software available over the web. Note that most statistics.com courses beyond the introductory courses use capabilities not available in StatCrunch.

  5. Data Desk from Data Description, is a graphics oriented program.
    - Suitable for a beginner with no software preference. Note that most statistics.com courses beyond the introductory courses use capabilities not available in Data Desk.

  6. Excel has some basic statistical capabilities, though they are not the most rigorous. Help pages are available in the course for Excel.
    - Suitable for a beginner with Excel experience who is likely to continue using Excel; Excel add-ins are used in introdoctory and some advanced statistics.com courses, particularly those involving data mining, resampling, forecasting, and risk analysis.

  7. Minitab is available for rent at a very reasonable price, and some illustrations and help pages are available for it in the course.
    - Suitable for a beginner with no software preference; offers a wide range of capabilities used in some advanced statistics.com courses, particularly those in the engineering and forecasting area.

  8. IBM SPSS Statistics (formerly PASW Statistics, formerly SPSS) is a full purpose, standard statistical software package that is relatively easy to learn. Some tutorials are available for it, and a student version is available. PASW Statistics offers online seminars.
    - Suitable for a beginner who has a software preference for PASW Statistics (e.g. because it will be used at school or work). PASW Statistics offers most of the capabilities used in advanced statistics.com courses.

  9. Stata is a full purpose, standard statistical software package that is relatively easy to learn. Some tutorials are available for it, and a student version is available.
    - Suitable for a beginner who has a software preference for Stata (e.g. because it will be used at school or work). Stata offers most of the capabilities used in advanced statistics.com courses.

  10. SAS is a full purpose program that has a relatively high learning curve. It is available in a learning edition.
    - Not suitable for a beginner, recommended only for those with some SAS experience. SAS offers most of the capabilities used in advanced statistics.com courses.

  11. R is a statistical programming and analysis environment that is open source and free. There are help pages available.
    - Not suitable for a beginner (for that, we recommend our Introduction to R courses), but some illustrations are offered in R for those familiar with it. R offers most of the capabilities used in advanced statistics.com courses.

Teaching assistants are able to offer assistance on all of the above packages. Each instructor is familiar with a subset - check the discussion board at the beginning of the course for details.

See the software page for information on obtaining copies of the above software packages.

Want to be notified of future course offering?


Enter your email address here:

What our students say:

“I realized one of my work projects would benefit from deeper statistical analysis, including functions I had a good background in and knew at one time, but I needed to dust the cobwebs off and catch up to changes in the field.” Douglas D. Reimel, Jr.

Douglas Reimel

"I’ve increased my exposure in my department and profession because I have experience with a number of data analysis approaches. I’ve been asked to give guest lectures in other classes on statistical methods and different strategies, and I was asked to present at a national conference." Todd Lewis, Ph.D., Associate ProfessorDepartment of Counseling and Educational DevelopmentSchool of EducationUniversity of North Carolina at Greensboro

Todd Lewis

"We’re trying to make it easier for patients to get their prosthetic arms to do exactly what they want them to do. I’ve applied what I’ve learned through my statistics.com courses, such as Baysian statistics, computing techniques, biostatistics, clinical trials, analysis and sensitivity software, bioavailability, probability distributions, data mining, and designing experiments to map brain impulses to muscle movement, which ultimate...

Patricia Shewokis

“It took me a long time to find just the right program that provides the right mix of applied and theory, but I found the right one at statistics.com. My staff emerges from your training ready to make an impact on the company.” Joseph SommaDirector, Market IntelligenceIndependent Health

Joseph Somma

"Traditionally, reports are designed to summarize data, but they can only tell you what happened. I'm applying data mining algorithms I've learned in my Statistics.com coursework to ask why something happened." Susan StranburgSoftware Developer

Susan Stranburg

"My courses help me look at more complex problems using different approaches to show more interesting aspects of conditions, beyond just tables and charts, more than just sampling or descriptive statistics." Cristobal BazanUnited Nations agency

Cristobal Bazan

I hear IT people complaining that they’re always needing to learn new technology because things in their field evolve and change quickly. The same thing is true in analytics. New techniques are developing rapidly. Robert Wood Director, Advanced Analytics Group, Merkle

Robert Wood

© Statistics.com 2004-2012
Site Map Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions