Assessment, Statistics, and Research

 In a previous post, I reported the value of reporting polling data using averages of many polls for the leading candidates. I mentioned that national polls are interesting but the US chooses a president based on the electoral college. Because the electors are chosen by states, it makes sense to predict winners by observing how the population of a state is likely to vote and thereby decide how many electors "won" by a candidate. This assumes an elector does not go rogue and vote for their preferred candidate. This map can of course change with every new poll, but has the potential for a more accurate prediction than charts of national polls. The chart map video is from NBC News . How do you create map charts? Microsoft Excel has you covered-- see Create a Map chart in Excel .   In Excel, you will find the map option labeled Geography under the Data tab. You can download examples with several map charts from Microsoft . Learn more about surveys in Creating Surveys available o

An excellent example of presenting two sets of data from multiple sources over time can be found in the presentation of polling data on FiveThirtyEight .* The point of  this post is to identify a useful way to present data from multiple sources over time. The charts are continually updated as data from new polls are received*. The data for each of the two main candidates are plotted and a trend line shows the averages for each candidate. From left to right we see the progress based on the dates of each poll. Notes about the chart and the data 1. Percentages can be averaged and yield a meaningful and easy way to interpret multiple sets of data. 2. The narrowing and widening of the trend lines offers a quick glance at what is happening for each candidate or data source. 3. Averaging polls from multiple sources helps avoid bias due to emphasizing preferred outcomes. 4. Below the chart are tables of data showing important information useful to research methods    4.1 Dates are listed and a

Tracking polls are useful for evaluating changes in attitudes overtime. A simple yet effective approach is to plot the percentages of people responding in one of two ways each time you collect data. In the example from the Washington Post-ABC News poll, the pollsters collected opinions of the public on the way the president was handling the coronavirus outbreak. By connecting the data points with different colored lines, the change is evident at a quick glance. If you are interested in this particular subject, see the article by Clement and Balz, The Washington Post, July 17, 2020. READ MORE about surveys and charts in Creating Surveys on AMAZON and other stores worldwide. Links to Connections My Page      www.suttong.com    My Books   AMAZON           and             GOOGLE STORE   FOLLOW   FACEBOOK     Geoff W. Sutton    TWITTER    @Geoff.W.Sutton   PINTEREST    www.pinterest.com/GeoffWSutton   Articles: Academia    Geoff W Sutton    ResearchGate    Geoffrey W Sut