The purpose of the article is to conduct a comparative analysis of the capabilities of Microsoft Excel and SPSS software, taking into account the peculiarities of their use in the course of studying the course «Information technologies and statistical data processing in scientific activities in physical therapy». Research methods: theoretical analysis and generalization of scientific and educational literature, comparative analysis. Results: Microsoft Excel is a universal spreadsheet processor widely used in the learning environment due to its accessibility, simple interface, and the ability to quickly visualize data. In the course, it is used to master the basic concepts of statistics: calculating the mean, median, mode, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, correlation coefficients, and building simple graphs. Microsoft Excel allows you to visually show the relationships between variables, analyze trends in samples, and draw preliminary conclusions. With the help of built-in functions and data analysis, higher education students can master the methods of constructing descriptive statistics, criteria for testing statistical hypotheses, criteria and methods for testing the existence of a statistical relationship between features. However, as tasks become more complex and the need for precision in calculations grows, it becomes necessary to use specialized software such as SPSS. This tool is focused on in-depth statistical analysis, is often used in scientific research, and has an intuitive interface combined with powerful computing algorithms. As part of the course «Information technologies and statistical data processing in scientific activities in physical therapy», SPSS is used to perform advanced analysis: checking the normality of the distribution, calculating nonparametric criteria, and cluster analysis. The advantage of SPSS is the automatic generation of results tables and statistical reports, which greatly facilitates the interpretation of data for higher education students who are just learning statistics. Conclusions. Teaching the course «Information technologies and statistical data processing in scientific activities in physical therapy» involves not only familiarizing higher education students with the theoretical foundations of mathematical statistics, but also the targeted development of practical skills in using modern software tools such as Microsoft Excel and SPSS. The combination of these tools in the educational process provides an opportunity to implement a differentiat ed approach to the processing of empirical data of different size and complexity.
Zhernovnikova et al. (Sat,) studied this question.