<p>If you want to report the dispersion, add some <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_bar" rel="nofollow noreferrer">error bars</a>, or better do a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_plot" rel="nofollow noreferrer">box plot</a>, or even <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_plot" rel="nofollow noreferrer">violin plot</a>, but the latter require understanding of less introductory concepts (for tuning purposes). For a non-graphical presentation of e.g. age by task (and by gender as well), see <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contingency_table" rel="nofollow noreferrer">contingency table</a>. These can be nested.</p>

<p>If you want to know if there are significant differences between the groups, read about the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-test#Multiple-comparison_ANOVA_problems" rel="nofollow noreferrer">F-test</a>. If want to test diffrences between individual tasks, you can do that too (e.g. t-test), but you have to worry about adjusting for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_comparisons_problem" rel="nofollow noreferrer">multiple comparisons</a>.</p>

<p>I will not go into further details because this board is unsuitable for giving you a stats 101 education. And so is Wikipedia, by the way; its articles on such topics are generally too technical for the mere practitioner of statistics. It's best you talk to someone who has had at least that stat 101 level of education, although it would be better with someone who at least [still] practices statistics on some level. All else failing, read an intro textbook of applied statistics; or see coursera for a free class etc.</p>

<p>You should also learn how to use a software package that does all of these, e.g. R or SPSS. Depending how good you are at programming you may find one or the other easier. With software like these, you can also easily do plot arrays that basically iterate over a covariate's (e.g. gender) level (i.e. values). There's no standard name for these, R calls them <a href="http://www.cookbook-r.com/Graphs/Facets_(ggplot2)/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">facets</a>; SPSS calls them <a href="http://www.unige.ch/ses/sococ/cl/spss/graph/panelplots.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">panel plots</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-14T09:09:18.600Z
2018-08-14T11:54:14.657Z
2018-08-14T11:54:14.657Z
got trolled too much this week
<p>I want to investigate the ability of a group of students to learn programming concepts in one hour.</p>

<p>The students are grouped by ages: 6 - 17.
The tasks are divided into concept and type. Each concept has example tasks, to correct code, to copy code and to write code without help.
I measure the number of tasks completed and the time elapsed in each one.</p>

<p>What is the best way to analyze this data? And to represent them?</p>

<p>UPDATE</p>

<p>I wanted to compare the performance of students by age and gender.
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/VT4dp.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/VT4dp.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>I draw a simple bar chart with the means of the tasks performed correctly.</p>

<p>But the experiments have different durations and much dispersion. There is some more reliable statistical method than analyzing only the mean.</p>

<p>I am not an expert in the subject and neither in statistics.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-10T10:36:52.087Z
Do you have a hypothesis (if so, include it in the question), or will you solely do post-hoc analysis? Or, in other words, what is your research question?
Steven Jeuris
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-11T16:55:08.393Z
I'm mildly confused what type of answer you're expecting. Would you be okay with references to papers showing similar studies/experiments? Or are you only looking for a step-by-step guide? I ask, because I want to make sure you get the information you're looking for.
Seanny123
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-11T21:59:39.993Z
Seanny123, It is okay references to papers showing similar studies. 
I want to show that the 'Hour of Code' can be useful to learn programming concepts.
Marina
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-11T23:34:14.230Z
I'm not sure this is really on topic for psychology - seems like the question is more about pedagogy? Certainly ed psych is part of psych but I don't see much of an ed psych bent here. Others may certainly disagree with me, though. Might be better for https://cseducators.stackexchange.com/ though I'm not personally familiar with that community.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-12T00:30:23.943Z
ok, thanks Little by little I will find the right forum. Before I asked in the mathematics....
Marina
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-13T13:09:58.343Z
As Steven asked; what is the hypothesis? Are you using two conditions and do you wish to test the effectiveness of study method A versus B? Or is it a descriptive study? Do you expect an improvement over time or something? The number of completed tasks is a vague descriptor. Do you mean the nr. of *correctly* accomplished tasks?
AliceD
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-13T20:13:03.110Z
AliceD, it is a descriptive study. It is a unique study, there is no comparison with another study. These are correctly completed tasks. Example log: https://bitbucket.org/marinamm/txdataset/src/default/140029843as01 where first column is the date and the second the time. Example, 20180503 121439 command: user 14002943AS01 
it means 2018 - 05 - 03   12:14:39 

From these log I get the completed tasks and time per student and I have it collected in some tables for level. For example, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jeUIF3p5ZglH3nhbOLgvNYsEqSCdxyMMMpXyGb9DRd4/edit?usp=sharing
Marina
<data><analysis><validation>
Study on the learning of programming concepts in pre-university students
Marina
# Study on the learning of programming concepts in pre-university students

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-08-10)

I want to investigate the ability of a group of students to learn programming concepts in one hour.

The students are grouped by ages: 6 - 17.
The tasks are divided into concept and type. Each concept has example tasks, to correct code, to copy code and to write code without help.
I measure the number of tasks completed and the time elapsed in each one.

What is the best way to analyze this data? And to represent them?

UPDATE

I wanted to compare the performance of students by age and gender.
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/VT4dp.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/VT4dp.png)

I draw a simple bar chart with the means of the tasks performed correctly.

But the experiments have different durations and much dispersion. There is some more reliable statistical method than analyzing only the mean.

I am not an expert in the subject and neither in statistics.

**Tags:** data, analysis, validation

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Do you have a hypothesis (if so, include it in the question), or will you solely do post-hoc analysis? Or, in other words, what is your research question?  
> **username_2**: I'm mildly confused what type of answer you're expecting. Would you be okay with references to papers showing similar studies/experiments? Or are you only looking for a step-by-step guide? I ask, because I want to make sure you get the information you're looking for.  
> **username_0**: username_2, It is okay references to papers showing similar studies.  I want to show that the 'Hour of Code' can be useful to learn programming concepts.  
> **username_3**: I'm not sure this is really on topic for psychology - seems like the question is more about pedagogy? Certainly ed psych is part of psych but I don't see much of an ed psych bent here. Others may certainly disagree with me, though. Might be better for https://cseducators.stackexchange.com/ though I'm not personally familiar with that community.  
> **username_0**: ok, thanks Little by little I will find the right forum. Before I asked in the mathematics....  
> **username_4**: As Steven asked; what is the hypothesis? Are you using two conditions and do you wish to test the effectiveness of study method A versus B? Or is it a descriptive study? Do you expect an improvement over time or something? The number of completed tasks is a vague descriptor. Do you mean the nr. of *correctly* accomplished tasks?  
> **username_0**: username_4, it is a descriptive study. It is a unique study, there is no comparison with another study. These are correctly completed tasks. Example log: https://bitbucket.org/marinamm/txdataset/src/default/140029843as01 where first column is the date and the second the time. Example, 20180503 121439 command: user 14002943AS01  it means 2018 - 05 - 03   12:14:39   From these log I get the completed tasks and time per student and I have it collected in some tables for level. For example, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jeUIF3p5ZglH3nhbOLgvNYsEqSCdxyMMMpXyGb9DRd4/edit?usp=sharing  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2018-08-14. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

If you want to report the dispersion, add some [error bars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_bar), or better do a [box plot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_plot), or even [violin plot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_plot), but the latter require understanding of less introductory concepts (for tuning purposes). For a non-graphical presentation of e.g. age by task (and by gender as well), see [contingency table](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contingency_table). These can be nested.

If you want to know if there are significant differences between the groups, read about the [F-test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-test#Multiple-comparison_ANOVA_problems). If want to test diffrences between individual tasks, you can do that too (e.g. t-test), but you have to worry about adjusting for [multiple comparisons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_comparisons_problem).

I will not go into further details because this board is unsuitable for giving you a stats 101 education. And so is Wikipedia, by the way; its articles on such topics are generally too technical for the mere practitioner of statistics. It's best you talk to someone who has had at least that stat 101 level of education, although it would be better with someone who at least [still] practices statistics on some level. All else failing, read an intro textbook of applied statistics; or see coursera for a free class etc.

You should also learn how to use a software package that does all of these, e.g. R or SPSS. Depending how good you are at programming you may find one or the other easier. With software like these, you can also easily do plot arrays that basically iterate over a covariate's (e.g. gender) level (i.e. values). There's no standard name for these, R calls them [facets](http://www.cookbook-r.com/Graphs/Facets_(ggplot2)/); SPSS calls them [panel plots](http://www.unige.ch/ses/sococ/cl/spss/graph/panelplots.html).


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