JohnEalesandJulianStander
1. Introduction
Julian Stander
School of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Plymouth
julian.stander@plymouth.ac.uk
Minitab[1]wasdevelopedatthePennsylvaniaStateUniversity,USA,intheearly
1970sbyBarbaraF.Ryan,ThomasA.Ryan,Jr.andBrianL.Joiner.Ithasbeenregularly
updatedandimprovedoverthepast35years.Thecurrentversion,Minitab15,
producesfinegraphicsandhasagoodrangeofbuilt-infunctionality,including
generalisedlinearmodels,timeseriesanalysisandmultivariatestatistics.Itisusedbya
numberoflargemulti-nationalcompaniesincludingFord,andisalsoemployedinthe
teachingofstatisticsacrosstheworld.
Minitab15isWindowsbasedandcanbeeithermenuorcommanddriven.Upon
startingMinitab,theuserispresentedwithasplitscreencomprisingaSession
window,wherecommandsmaybeenteredandoutputisshown,andadata
worksheet.Thereisalsoamenubaratthetopofthescreen.
Atotalof90plantswereusedintheexperiment,with30
plantsbeingrandomlyassignedtoeachcompound.At
thestartoftheexperimenteachplantwasdippedinto
asuspensionoftheappropriatecompound.Afterwards,
thewholecollectionofplantswasplacedinaclosed
environmentwhichwasinfectedwithmildewspores.Atthe
endoftheexperimentthenumberoflesionsonthefirst
leafofeachplantwascounted.
Thisdatasetwasgiventothestudentsforanalysis.Their
taskwastocomparetheeffectsofthethreechemical
compoundsontheplantsbyproducingsuitabletabular,
numericalandgraphicalsummariesofthedataandtowrite
ashortreportontheiranalysis.Fig1belowshowsascreen
shotofsomeoftheanalysescarriedoutinthecoursework
andwaseasilyproducedwithafewmenudriven
commands.Theresultingoutputcanbesavedforfuture
use.Studentsfinditstraightforwardtocopyandpastesuch
outputintoMicrosoftWordandsohavethesatisfactionof
beingabletoproduceaprofessionallypresentedreportof
theirwork.
SimilaranalysescouldbeundertakeninR[4].AlthoughRis
free,ithasthedisadvantageofbeingcommandlinedriven.
Becauseofthis,attheUniversityofPlymouthweteachR
usingtheexcellentTinn-Reditor[3].Thishelpsstudents
withthesyntaxoftheircommands,andallowsthemto
revisittheirworkeasily.However,toachievetheMinitab
analysisshowninFig1inR,studentswouldhavetotype
correctcommandstoreadintheirdata,toprovidegroup
levelsummarystatisticsandtoproduceasuitablegraph.
Someofthesecommandscanbequitesophisticatedand
lackeaseofinterpretationfornoviceusers.Inaddition,
studentshavetobecomefamiliarwithTinn-Randits
d. Output
ThequantityandqualityofdefaultoutputonMinitabis
bothsensibleandgood.Whenrequired,moredetailed
outputiseasilyobtainedthroughvariousoptionsonthe
menuboxes.Sensibledefaultoutputisaclearadvantage
ofMinitabasstudentscanoftenbeintimidatedwhen
facedwithunnecessarilylengthyresultsfromsimple
analyses.Here,Minitabmaybefavourablycomparedwith
SPSSwhichwearerequiredtousetoteachstudentson
psychologyprogrammes.Ourexperienceisthatthedefault
SPSSoutputisvoluminous,andmuchteachingeffortis
spentongettingstudentstofocusonthesalientparts.
Often,studentsusingSPSSaresidetrackedintospending
timeinvestigatingirrelevantstatisticsandtests,andthiscan
leadtofutureinappropriateanalyses.
e. Licences
TheUniversityofPlymouthslicensingagreementwith
Minitaballowsstudentstoobtainafreecopyofthesoftware
fortheirhomecomputers.Whilstnotauniqueagreement,
thisiscertainlyonereasonwhywehaverecentlytakenthe
decisiontoreplacecertainotherpackageswithMinitabon
someofourservicecoursesatPlymouth.
Conclusions
b. Graphics
ThereisagoodchoiceofgraphicsonMinitabincludingbar
charts,piecharts,scatterdiagrams,histogramsandboxand
whiskerplots.Thequalityofthesegraphicsisimpressive
anditisverystraightforwardtoeditthem.Rtoooffers
excellentandhighlycustomizablegraphicsfacilities,but
againforthenoviceuserthesecanbesomewhatdaunting.
Wehaveseensomestudents,especiallymaturestudents,
whohavebecomeverydiscouragedwhentryingto
producesimplegraphsinRbecauseasmallsyntaxmistake,
suchastyping1insteadofl,causesanerror.Wehaveno
doubtthatteachingelementarygraphicaldisplaysusingR
requiresconsiderablymorestaffinputthanwithMinitab.
c. Functionality
AwiderangeofstatisticalanalysesisavailablefromMinitab.
Theserangefromdescriptivestatistics,throughregression
modellingandanalysisofvariance,togeneralisedlinear
modelling,timeseriesanalysisandmultivariatestatistics.
Minitabmacrosmaybewrittentoextendthisfunctionality.
ThismeansthatMinitabcanbeusedonintermediateand
evenadvancedstatisticsmodulesaswellasintroductory
ones.AtPlymouth,forinstance,weuseMinitabtoteach
regressionandanalysisofvarianceonsecondyearmodules
onourAppliedStatisticsdegree.Inrecentyears,however,
wehavealsoprovidedstudentswithRcodetoreplicate
theirMinitabanalyses.Thisgivesstudentsconsiderably
flexibilitywhenitcomestotheirfinalyeardissertationsand
allowsthemtowritereportsthatshowtheirabilitytousea
varietyofpackages.
Basedonourmanyyearsofexperience,wehaveoutlined
severaloftheadvantagesthatMinitaboffersoverother
packagesinthecontextofteachingstatisticstostudents
whomayfindmathematicalsubjectsdifficultandwho
maybestudyingstatisticsforthefirsttime.Itiseasyto
producerelativelysophisticatednumericalandgraphical
summariesofdatausingMinitab,andstraightforwardto
revisitanalyses.WehighlyrecommendtheuseofMinitab
forthislargegroupofstatisticsstudents.Wealsobelieve
thatMinitabhasanimportantroletoplayinotherteaching
contextsinhighereducation.
References
1. Minitab.Availablevia:http://www.minitab.com/
[Accessed9June2009].
2. Clarke,G.M.(1994)Statistics and Experimental Design:
An Introduction for Biologists and Biochemists.Arnold.
3. Faria,J.C.(2009)ResourcesofTinn-RGUI/EditorforR
Environment.UESC,Ilheus,Bahia,Brazil.
4. RDevelopmentCoreTeam(2008)R:ALanguageand
EnvironmentforStatisticalComputing,RFoundation
forStatisticalComputing,Vienna,Austria,ISBN3900051-07-0.Availablevia:http://www.R-project.org
[Accessed9June2009].
Using Minitab for teaching statistics in higher education John Eales and Julian Stander