Advice regarding Stata NetCourse

[Fahad Mirza]

Hello,

Hope you all are well and safe.

I am looking to expand my knowledge in visualization using Stata however, i am confused as to what sort of route i need to take in order to gain maximum insight into this area.

I recently was reading up on "NetCourse^® 120: Statistical Graphics Using Stata" and found that to be quite interesting however, at the same time expensive as well (since i am not earning at the moment and just graduated a in July). Is it worth it to try and go for this course? or should i look into some other resource?

If i am to spend $150 on this NetCourse, then will it give me the knowledge to be able to visualize in a precise manner?

I am just seeking help from the gurus of visualization here and would love to hear about what they think.

[Sebastian Kripfganz]

I cannot comment on the content or quality of the Stata NetCourse, but you might first want to check the free tutorial videos on Stata's YouTube channel and other free online resources. These are of course mainly covering the basics. Some of the NetCourse content you can certainly study yourself in a learning-by-doing fashion. The help file and the manual often get you further than you think, but this would take some more time than a dedicated training course. I am sure the NetCourse will also provide you with some tips and tricks that you may not easily discover yourself. I guess, if you have enough spare time and there is no specific reason why you need to urgently learn all of the advanced details, you might be better of discovering Stata graphics on your own.

[Nick Cox]

I've never taken this NetCourse but I want to add that a feature of NetCourses is that you are assured of one-to-one attention for your questions from StataCorp people, who really know their stuff.

What Sebastian Kripfganz says is also true, but as he says it's possible with graphics to spend a lot of time pursuing details that are elusive, It's the small tricks and tips you need that can be the most valuable things to learn beyond what is evident from a skimming of the manuals.

I doubt that the course covers community-contributed commands directly, but StataCorp people tend to know about such commands too: they know from their time providing technical support which areas are covered by community contributions.

[Fahad Mirza]

Nick Cox thank you for this insight, and yes one-to-one is something I am looking for as I would like to understand the thought process behind a visualization. Like I understand what visualizations are available however, the question in my mind is how to present the data so that even a layman who is not well versed with data can understand whats going on. I do spend time on my own learning visualizations however, there comes a moment where I am just blank because I am unable to visualize how I want to present things.

There is also a problem where I am unable to keep up with new community-contributed commands and I am not sure if all of these commands are posted in Statalist or is there some specific website that i need to visit to see these commands. I guess my problem stems to the fact that I am not very resourceful and more like swaying my arms in the dark trying to find whatever can help me. Just trying to sort of get guidance on how to train my mind to think visually and for that I am quite a bit lost.

[Nick Cox]

As said, I haven't taken this NetCourse -- or if I did it was several years ago and the content may well be different. My guess has to be that it tries to do what is advertised, focus on the use of Stata rather than also give you a detailed and comprehensive grounding in the principles of visualization. Visualization is a field with perhaps hundreds of books and certainly thousands of papers and I doubt that what you might want to know can all be encapsulated in a short course.

Part of your other questions is easy to answer. Community-contributed Stata commands made public can be posted on SSC, through the Stata Journal, on GitHub and indeed anywhere else. There aren't any rules about that and I doubt that anyone has tried them all. Some years ago there was a request -- if not an instruction -- that I should review them all and come back and tell people what was any good. That was, I suppose, flattering, but it is not going to happen. Conversely, if I post a new command of my own I tend to jump up and down about it on Statalist like an excited small child, but many commands are not publicised in that way.

Posting an example dataset of your own and asking for suggestions about visualizations here on Statalist remains a strong possibility, easy in being free of charge and risky in not guaranteeing an answer. I get flak (e.g. from EJMR trolls) for often advising people that they should be thinking quite differently from their original ideas, but heck, it's part of the brand.

[Maarten Buis]

I gave a workshop on graphics in Stata at the 2018 German Stata conference. The materials are here: http://www.maartenbuis.nl/workshops/index.html . Maybe you find those useful.

[Roman Mostazir]

A Visual Guide to Stata Graphics, Third Edition by Michael N. Mitchell is also a good option. The price of the book is less than half of what you are willing to spend.

[Fahad Mirza]

Thank you all for the wonderful input I really appreciate it!