After collecting data, investigators adopts that are critical to the inspection, cleaning, transformation, and modeling, aiming at gaining insights into the trends of the data that help to infer conclusions. Various statistical software are applied to analyze data, but the methods of the analysis selected depend on the type of data collection methods. Typically, data could either be qualitative or quantitative. Notably, quantitative data appear in the form of numbers that are manipulated using statistical tools to achieve several measures. Some of the measures obtained through quantitative data analysis include frequencies, test scores, survey results, and percentages. In some other cases, there could be the gathering of qualitative data that does not appear in the form of numbers; however, they are converted to numbers for statistical analysis. Qualitative data analysis involves the conversion or coding of responses to numerical values. For example, when an interview is being conducted to associate a variable with the level of strength of responses, coding could be done whereby one (1) could represent least agree while five (5) represent strongly agree. These values are then analyzed using statistical tools to achieve measures, such as frequencies, percentages, and survey results, among others.
Concerning the analysis of the needs assessment survey, data from open-ended and closed-ended questions would be analyzed, but the data from the former questions would be coded to obtain numerical values for statistical manipulation. In short, data from open-ended questions are sorted, grouped, ranked, assessed, and analyzed using statistical methods. Presenting the needs assessment survey results could be achieved in different ways. First, frequency distribution could be used in the form of a table to show how often a set of values in the survey occur in the data collected. Second, graphical methods could be applied to present the survey results, and they include using bar graphs, histograms, pie charts, and line graphs. They show the trends of data in a graphical manner.