Dataset BuilderStatLens
1 Data Input
Ready to send?
The data is the easy half. These are the parts only you can write — they become the “About this data” panel students read before they analyse anything.
Handy for converting a CSV someone else published, or one of your own already on the web. Which files can I link to?
Column Configuration
| Column | Detected Type | Override Type | Levels (optional) |
|---|
Preview
2 Metadata
snake_case, used as filename
Present facts only. Do not draw conclusions for the student.
Variable Descriptions
Describe what each variable represents and how it was measured.
Variable Labels
Human-readable labels for each variable (defaults to column name).
3 Export
How to use your dataset
1. Host the file
- Go to gist.github.com and create a new gist.
- Paste the JSON in and name the file
{id}.json. (StatLens recognises a dataset by its contents, so the name is for your benefit, not the tool's.) - Public or secret — either works; secret is unlisted, not private, so the link still opens for your students. Click Raw to get the direct URL.
2. Open it in StatLens
Paste that raw link into any tool's Open File/URL tab and click Load. The link becomes part of the page's address, so Share then gives you a QR code that opens the tool with your data already in it — no file for students to download. Step-by-step, including the Google Sheets route →
Or build the link by hand with ?json=, which is handy inside an activity or an LMS page:
explore/descriptive/?json=YOUR_RAW_URLsimulate/bootstrap-mean/?json=YOUR_RAW_URLinference/two-means/?json=YOUR_RAW_URL
A plain CSV or TSV works the same way with ?csv=, if you'd rather skip the conversion — you just lose the variable labels and study description that a dataset file carries.
3. Or let us host it — post the JSON in Canvas
If you’d rather not deal with hosting at all, download the JSON and attach it
to a post in the Contribute a Dataset discussion in the UWL STAT 145
Materials Canvas course. You get a reply in the thread with a short link like
explore/grouped/?dataset=your_data, which any tool’s Share
button turns into a QR code for the class, and it is listed on the
Extra Datasets page, credited to you.
Post the JSON rather than the spreadsheet: the JSON carries the study description and the variable descriptions you filled in above, and those are the half nobody else can write for you. The checklist above shows what’s still empty.
Strip names, student IDs and anything else identifying before you post — these datasets are published on a public website.
To propose a dataset for StatLens's built-in collection instead, open an issue at github.com/jbaggett/statlens/issues and attach the JSON.