ONLINE 4-PART WORKSHOP SERIES
Fundamentals of quantitative research: Concepts, design, and core analyses
14 January 2026
The Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) is organising the Online 4-Part Workshop Series ‘Fundamentals of quantitative research: Concepts, design, and core analyses’, starting on 3 March 2026.
This four-session workshop series provides an accessible introduction to quantitative research and analysis. The first two sessions will establish a strong conceptual foundation, including how quantitative researchers think, why reductionism is used, how measurement error arises, and how constructs become variables. Participants will learn about validity frameworks, reliability, quantitative research questions, and the logic of experimental and survey study designs.
The final two sessions offer hands-on SPSS training, covering data preparation, exploratory analysis and visualisation, model assumptions, and the choice between parametric and non-parametric models. The series concludes with an introduction to core statistical tests such as t-tests, ANOVA, ANCOVA, and multiple regression, and demonstrates how each of these can be understood through the general linear modelling framework.
The emphasis is on conceptual understanding, practical workflow, and the responsible interpretation of quantitative results in a general and transferable manner, to support the translation of knowledge into participants’ own bespoke study designs.
Online 4-Part Workshop Series
‘Fundamentals of quantitative research:
Concepts, design, and core analyses’
Date
Session 1 · Tuesday, 3 March 2026
Thinking like a quantitative researcher
Session 2 · Tuesday, 10 March 2026
Designing a quantitative study
Session 3 · Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Preparing and exploring data for analysis with SPSS
Session 4 • Tuesday, 24 March 2026
Core statistical tests in SPSS and the logic of linear modelling
Time
15h00 – 16h30 CET
Mode
Online
Platform
Zoom
Target group
Postgraduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and early-stage researchers who want to build, refresh, or confirm foundational quantitative research skills, or later-stage researchers from non-quantitative backgrounds interested in developing a quantitative skillset or becoming conversant with quantitative work.
Previous knowledge required
No formal quantitative background is required.
Basic familiarity with research concepts is helpful but not essential.
It will focus on:
- How quantitative researchers conceptualise constructs, variables, and relationships
- Post-positivism, reductionism, and sources of measurement error
- Validity frameworks and reliability
- Formulating quantitative research questions and selecting suitable methodological designs
- Data preparation, exploratory analysis, and model assumptions
- Parametric and non-parametric models, statistical significance, and interpreting effect sizes
- Understanding tests or group difference and tests of association as forms of linear modelling in SPSS
Learning Outcomes:
- By the end of the workshop series, participants will understand how quantitative studies are conceptualised, designed, and analysed. They will be able to prepare and explore data, assess assumptions, select appropriate statistical tests, and interpret SPSS outputs using the logic of the general linear model.
Hosted by
TUS, Ireland