What is Research Software?
Research software helps make research more efficient by sorting data based on the characteristics of two different categories of information:
Purpose:
After gathering information, the research software makes it easier to process the data and keeps the procedure simple and efficient.
Programs:
WCU provides three types of software to further educational research:
1. SAS – a program used for data management, reporting, analysis, planning and forecasting, research and management, application development, and data warehousing
2. SPSS – a program used for survey data collection, modeling, analysis, and collaboration and application services
3. ATLAS.ti – a program designed to analyze patterns and phenomena in text or multimedia by coding and annotating results to find relations between them
Features:
Even though they have the same goal, the three offered programs have different capabilities:
SAS:
- Best with large data sets
- Offers proprietary programming language for specificity in application
- Allows communication with databases like Oracle
SPSS:
- Simple statistical analysis
- Intuitive graphical user interface
- Can read and write from and to other statistics packages
ATLAS.ti:
- Analyzes qualitative data associated with quantitative data
- Applies well to phenomena in the humanities (art, anthropology, communication, etc.)
- Visual model-building and transcription capabilities
Advantages:
Research Software is an important part of many studies and helps the process in multiple ways:
- Easier information analysis
- Faster data entry
- More efficient organization
- More convenient statistics calculating
Availability:
The availability of each program is dependent on the individual contract and the processing limitations of the computer.
Support:
For further information or support please contact one of the following:
IT Help Desk: (828) 227-7487 or ithelp@wcu.edu
Andrew Sexton: (828) 227-2931 or acsexton@email.wcu.edu
Jason Melvin: (828) 227-3023 or jmelvin@email.wcu.edu
Sue Grider: (828) 227-2279 or sgrider@email.wcu.edu