Two great websites that generate data sets for teaching.

You could also use these websites to generate totally unethical data for publication. Don't do it, buddy.

Sometimes, it is lovely to have some data generated to teach your stats class when you are teaching. You know the data for a particular statistical test and the results. Here are two websites that do just that.

One tried and trustworthy resource was created by I/O psychologist Richard Landers. I blogged about this one in 2013, and I've used his data generator for years.

My new resource is from social psychologist Andrew Luttrell.

Nice things about both:

-Data!
-Both are easy to use.
-Specific data for everything you teach in Intro Stats, like t-tests, ANOVA, correlation, and regression.
-They are both free and help you do your job. Thanks, Richard and Andrew!

The nice thing about Richard's is that it gives you options of several different units (days, money, etc.) AND vignettes that explain why this data was collected. You can generate data for chi-square.

-Nice things about Andrew's: Graph your results. You can specify the mean and SD for the groups compared to having more control over the units and develop your own back story.

How to use either in class:

-Makeup of real fake data that replicates the findings of fake or actual research.

Real data example from NPR.
Pretend data example from The Onion.

-These two data generators generate the conclusions for the test. So, give your students the links to create data sets and analyze them themselves.

-Handy for writing exams and homework questions.

Comments

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