Project work has been implemented in the assessment of the final year students in a University Business School. The main objective of the project is to develop students' research skills. Although the project is not necessarily a statistical project, many of these projects involve data analysis. Hence, statistics has become a substantial part of the exercise. However, students have limited understanding in statistics and research methods, thus the main concern is whether they equip themselves in data analysis and what difficulties they encounter while handling data. The paper gives an overview of experience in data analysis for these students. The study is based on a survey conducted amongst the final year students upon completion of their projects. Students' views of data analysis were assessed. Conclusions were drawn in terms of the results, and positive and negative experiences of the students. The strengths and weaknesses of the data analysis are identified. Ways to improve the statistics curriculum and assist students to master the statistical skills in data analysis in future are discussed.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education