On March 31, 2023, the Evidence-Based Research Center for Education Assessment (ERCEA) held the second academic seminar of this semester in the Old Science and Technology Building, with the theme of “Smart PLS Software Application in Education Research.” The seminar was moderated by Professor Huang Jinyan and delivered by Dr. Shahbaz Hussain. Associate Professor Kang Cui, Teacher Li Zhang, and academic postgraduate students of the Research Center attended it.

Based on the first academic seminar, Dr. Hussain explained the practical operation steps of Smart PLS software, including data preparation and analysis. During the data preparation phase, Dr. Hussain emphasized the importance of careful screening and processing of data to ensure data integrity, accuracy, and continuity. He then personally demonstrated several effective ways to deal with missing values. In the data analysis session, Dr. Hussain explained in detail how to build theoretical models in Smart PLS and operate analysis measurement and structural models, and guided the teachers and students to operate the software through examples.

At the end of the conference, Professor Huang Jinyan elaborated on the differences between principal component analysis and factor analysis, enabling teachers and students to have a deeper understanding and knowledge of the internal principles of the two analysis methods. In addition, Professor Huang emphasized the importance of learning research methods and practical research to apply theoretical construction to real-world research.