oped in 1989 by A. Gorbachyk with the support of
the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of
Sciences of Ukraine. It is designed to organize the
introduction and statistical analysis of the results of
various sociological surveys (Gorbachik, 2004).
A new updated version of OCA for Windows ap-
peared in 2001, in 2004 – OCA New Line, and in
2019 – OCA CATI Android. The package provides
all basic operations with numerical data sets, in par-
ticular, input of questionnaires, logical control of en-
tered information, construction of filters for selection
of questionnaires under a certain condition or random
selection, tables of one-, two-dimensional distribu-
tion, calculation of central trend measures, variations
and indicators of connections, calculation of sampling
and error, testing of statistical hypotheses, implemen-
tation of factor and cluster analysis, construction of
linear regression equations, etc. The main advantages
of this Ukrainian software product are the conciseness
of the interface, relative cheapness, while the main
disadvantage is the limited functionality.
D. Shkurin (Ural Federal University named after
A. M. Gorky) created the first version of the Vor-
tex program in 1994. The latest updated version of
the program appeared in 2013 (Shkurin, 2016). It
is a modular program based on a data entry mod-
ule. There are different versions of the program which
differ in functionality: basic (data entry module, ba-
sic functions); professional (data entry module, ba-
sic functions, professional functions); full (data entry
module, basic functions, professional and additional
functions); student, academic and version for edu-
cational institutions. There may be separate subpro-
grams such as the module for conducting personal in-
terviews, FTP-server for conducting surveys, the mas-
ter of digitization of the territory map, the module
of pasting files, etc. Additional features of the Vor-
tex program include the ability to process data col-
lected during surveys by the following means: CAWI
(Computer Assisted Web Interface); CATI (Computer
Assisted Telephone Interviewing);TAPI (Tablet As-
sisted Personal Interviewing);CAPI (Computer As-
sisted Personal Interviewing). Unlike other software
products, it has the option of developing data collec-
tion tools (questionnaire, interview or testing form,
etc.).
The Stadia (Statistical Dialogue System) program
was developed by A. Kulaichev in 1985 (Kulaichev,
2013). The program provides comprehensive data
analysis using a set of modern and effective methods
for determining descriptive statistics, criteria for dif-
ference, categorical, variance, correlation and regres-
sion analysis, to visualize the data by means of busi-
ness and scientific graphics. Its main drawback is the
inability to process data presented in nominal scales
with compatible alternatives, as well as the option to
export / import data with other statistical packages of
applied programs.
Universal statistical package Statistica was devel-
oped by StatSoftInc in 1991 (Borovikov, 2003). Its
latest 14th version was released in 2020. In addition
to the generally defined statistical and graphical tools,
the system has specialized modules, for example, for
sociological or biomedical research, for solving tech-
nical and industrial problems as construction of qual-
ity control maps, process analysis modules and ex-
periment planning. Similar to Stadia, this software
product does not have the ability to process socio-
logical variables on a nominal scale with compati-
ble alternatives. The advantages of the package in-
clude: the ability to exchange data with MS Windows
applications, analysis results can be displayed in the
form of graphs, tables and text files, macro recording
to automate the same tasks, the ability to process a
database of 32,000 variables and almost unlimited ob-
servations, the ability to build 2D, 3D and 4D graphs,
matrices, icons.
The StatPlus application package was developed
by AnalystSoft in 2006 and the latest version ap-
peared in 2016. It allows the calculation of basic
descriptive and non-parametric statistics; it is pos-
sible to import/export documents in Microsoft Ex-
cel, StatSoft, SPSS, etc. However, its options are
very limited for the main tasks of empirical socio-
logical research compared to other software packages
(Tsyuhai, 2010).
The DA Standard 5.0 (determination analysis of
data) was developed in 2011 by Context Media to
process the results of marketing and sociological re-
search, financial data of the company’s activities, etc.
The system software contains two programs – DICT
(provides data preparation for processing, input of
variables vocabulary and data, export/import of data)
and DA (designed for data analysis, linear and even
distributions, multidimensional determination tables,
subsample formation, construction of new variables,
etc.). The program is built as a traditional database
(there are tables for storing information and query
system, which is intellectually built into the arrays
of tables) (Context Media, 2011). Its advantages are
adaptability to marketing problems, simple interface,
low technical requirements. However, it works only
on the basis of Windows 95, 2000, NT, XP; it has a
special format for data storage, the lack of ability to
export/import data with other statistical packages.
Summarizing, we note that the universal versa-
tility of the packages enables the analysis of differ-
ent data types using a wide range of statistical meth-
Modern Information and Communication Technologies in Professional Training of Sociology Students: The Mainstreaming of the Needs
and Significance
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