Increasingly, we’re bombarded with all sorts of data about how society is changing. From opinion poll trends and migration data to economic results and government debt levels.

On this course from the Sheffield Methods Institute at University of Sheffield, we’ll look at ways of cutting through the confusion to decide what numbers reveal, when and why they (sometimes deliberately) mislead, and how to determine what is ‘fake news.’

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

• Become a critical consumer of data in the media.
• Explain how social statistics are created.
• Evaluate data to make informed decisions about which results to trust.
• Design a quantitative research project.