MSOR Connections Vol 9 No 3 August October 2009

JohnEalesandJulianStander

Using Minitab for teaching statistics in higher education

John Eales
School of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Plymouth
john.eales@plymouth.ac.uk
Abstract
We discuss our experience with the software package Minitab 15 in the teaching of statistics in higher
education. We contrast the use of Minitab with that of other packages, highlighting its many advantages.

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.

2. The University of Plymouth experience

IntheSchoolofMathematicsandStatisticsattheUniversityofPlymouthweteacha
widerangeofstatisticsmodulesacrosstheinstitution.Thesevaryfromintroductory
coursestaughttoservicestudentsthroughtoadvancedmodulesdeliveredtoourown
AppliedStatisticsdegreeandmastersstudents.Thechoiceofsoftwareisusuallyakey
decisioninthedeliveryofthesemodulesandwecurrentlyuseavarietyofpackages
including:Minitab,MicrosoftExcel,R[4],SPSSandSTATGRAPHICSPlus.Wehavealso
usedGenStat,GLIM,SASandS-PLUSinthepast.
Thereareargumentstobemadeinfavourofeachofthesepackagesandwecertainly
wouldnotwishtodetractfromthealmostoverwhelmingcaseforusingR[4]to
conducthighlysophisticatedanalysesandresearch.Wewouldalsoadvocateusing
MicrosoftExcelasanexcellentinteractivetoolforlearningstatistics.Forexample,
inourteachingwesuccessfullyuseSolvertodemonstratemaximisinglikelihood
functionsandminimisingsumsofsquaresinsimpleregressionanalyses.However,we
wouldarguethatMinitabisanexcellentallroundpackagewhichhasclearadvantages
overitscompetitorsinthedeliveryofthemajorityofundergraduatework,particularly
serviceteaching.


MSOR Connections Vol 9 No 3 August October 2009

ThemainadvantageofMinitabisitsbeautifulsimplicity
whichmakesiteasytolearnanduse.Inourexperience,
asingleintroductorysessionisallthatisrequiredtoget
evenrelativelycomputerphobicandstatisticallyilliterate
studentsupandrunningwiththepackage.Perhapseven
moreimportantly,studentsrememberhowtodrivethe
softwareweeksormonthslater.Otherpackagesareharder
touseandstudentsoftengetfrustratedwhentryingto
remembersuchbasicsashowtoreadinorenterdata.
Thesepointsarereadilyillustratedbyourmanyyearsof
experienceonamoduletaughttofoundationstudentson
theExtendedScienceprogrammeatPlymouth:Statistics
forExtendedScience.Thiscoursehasarelativelyhigh
percentageofmaturestudents,manyofwhomfind
mathematicalsubjectsdifficultandveryfewofwhomhave
previouslystudiedanystatistics.Thefirstfiveweeksofthe
modulearedevotedtodescriptivestatistics.Attheendof
thissectionasummarylectureisgivenduringwhichdata
fromarealscientificexperimentareanalysed.Minitabis
introducedtothestudentsatthispoint,withthelecturer
givingaquickdemonstrationofthepackage.Althoughthis
demonstration,togetherwithanintroductoryhandout,
istheonlyinstructionthatthesestudentsaregiven
onMinitab,manystudentsregularlychoosetousethe
packageforthemodulescoursework.Weknowfromthis
courseworkandfrommodulefeedbackthatthestudents
findthesoftwaresimpletouseandhighlyeffective.
Asanexample,weconsiderarecentcourseworkon
StatisticsforExtendedSciencebasedonaproblemthatwe
havesomewhatmodifiedfromtheexcellenttextbyClarke
[2]:threechemicalcompounds,A,BandC,arebeingtested
aspotentialprotectivefungicidesagainstapplemildew.

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

Fig 1 Easily obtainable

Minitab output
showing graphical
and numerical
summaries for the
number of lesions
on plants treated
with three chemical
compounds A, B and
C. Students enjoy
discussing what
action to take about
the clearly visible
outlier.
Using Minitab for teaching statistics in higher education John Eales and Julian Stander

MSOR Connections Vol 9 No 3 August October 2009

interactionwithR.Moreover,itisourexperiencethatwhen
studentsreturntotheirTinn-Rworkafteralongperiodof
time,considerableintellectualeffortisrequiredforthemto
understandwhattheyhavealreadydonebeforetheycan
proceedwithadditionalanalyses.Minitabdoesnotsuffer
fromthisdrawback.Indeed,theprocessofre-startingwork
withMinitabisanimmediateone.
Asmentioned,Minitaboutputcanbeeasilytransferred
intoMicrosoftWord.ThisisalsopossiblewithR,andwith
manyotherpackages,butourexperienceisthatwith
Minitabtheprocedureisverydirectwithlittleadditional
editingbeingrequired.

3. Further advantages of Minitab

Aswellasitssimplicity,wewouldarguethatMinitabhas
thefollowingadditionaladvantages:
a. User friendliness
Aswellasbeingeasytouse,Minitabhasanextremely
goodhelpfacilityandexcellentelectronicmanuals.Data
entryisstraightforwardanditisasimpletasktocutand
pastedatafromanotherpackagesuchasMicrosoftExcel
intoMinitab.BycontrastRhelpfiles,althoughexcellent
formoreexperiencedusers,areoftenignoredasasource
ofinformationbynovicesbecauseofthefearthattheir
sophisticatedformatcanevoke.

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