STAT S242 - Course Guide 191 · 2019. 1. 8. · Course Guide Welcome to STAT S242 Welcome toSTAT S242 Statistics in Society! This Course Guide contains essential information about

STAT S242

Statistics in Society

Course Guide

191

OUHK Course Team

DeveloperDr Wong Kai Choi

Course Development CoordinatorDr Anita Wong, OUHK

MemberDr Douglas Ng, OUHK

Instructional DesignerRoss Vermeer, OUHK

External Course AssessorDr Ip Wai Cheung, Statistical Consultant of MVA HK Ltd

Copyright © The Open University of Hong Kong, 2015.Reprinted 2019.

All rights reserved.No part of this material may be reproduced in any form by any means without permissionin writing from the President, The Open University of Hong Kong.

The Open University of Hong KongHo Man TinKowloon

191

Contents

Course Guide 1

Welcome to STAT S242 ........................................................................................................ 1

Introduction to the course ................................................................................................... 2

Course Aims.................................................................................................................... 2

Course Learning Outcomes ............................................................................................ 2

What to do before the course begins ................................................................................. 3

Course Guide .................................................................................................................. 3

Course schedule ............................................................................................................. 3

Calculator ........................................................................................................................ 3

Home computer............................................................................................................... 3

Working through this course .............................................................................................. 4

Summary of study units................................................................................................... 4

The custom textbook....................................................................................................... 5

The Study Guide ............................................................................................................. 5

The Online Learning Environment (OLE) ........................................................................ 7

Face-to-face support via lectures and tutorials ............................................................... 7

Online lecture PPT slides ................................................................................................ 9

Assessment..................................................................................................................... 9

Course overview................................................................................................................. 11

Using the study units ......................................................................................................11

Other online supplementary materials ............................................................................. 12

STAT S242 formula booklet and statistical tables ......................................................... 12

Course schedules ......................................................................................................... 12

Stop presses ................................................................................................................. 12

Errata............................................................................................................................. 12

Data sets ....................................................................................................................... 12

Textbook Exercise Solution Guide ................................................................................ 12

XLSTAT Installation Procedure ..................................................................................... 13

Where to get help ............................................................................................................... 16

From your tutor.............................................................................................................. 16

From your fellow students ............................................................................................. 16

From the Course Coordinator ....................................................................................... 16

From the OLE discussion board and email ................................................................... 16

Keeping up with the course schedule .............................................................................. 17

Appendix A: Course Contents ......................................................................................... 18

Course Guide

Welcome to STAT S242Welcome to STAT S242 Statistics in Society!

This Course Guide contains essential information about the content and components of the coursethat you will need to know before you start your study.

Your study will change the way in which you look at many of the things in your day-to-day life.Many types of information are now quantified; for most of us, hardly a day goes by withoutreading a news item that involves numbers or statistics. However, there is more to these newsitems than just the numbers quoted. In order to understand what is happening around you, youneed to know what the numbers mean, where they came from, and how they should be interpreted— and there are other factors you need to consider as well.

This is what statistics is all about. After working through this course, you should be better able tounderstand and interpret such information. You should also know how to relate that information toyour own experience, and to other aspects of everyday life.

For example, one of the topics you will look at the beginning of the course is descriptive statisticsand prices indices. A price index is often quoted when discussing inflation and the cost of living— but what is an index, where does it come from, how is it calculated, and how does it relate toyou? These are the type of questions that this course investigates and helps to answer.

Course Guide 1

Introduction to the courseSTAT S242 is a 10-credit, middle-level course that is a compulsory course for the Statistics andDecision Science, Environmental Studies, and Economics degree programmes; and is an option inthe Social Sciences degree programme.

The course teaches the elementary statistical analysis techniques that can be used to investigate avariety of applications of statistics in everyday life. The course emphasizes the use of statisticalideas for making decisions, and engaging in exploratory data analysis, surveys, and basicstatistical inference. Working with preset Excel worksheets and data sets will provide you withpractical training for data analysis, and for meeting everyday life requirements.

This course is a distance learning course that will be delivered in a print-based, custom textbookformat, supplemented with a study guide, plus online course components and face-to-facesessions. Two study units are developed locally by the OUHK, and seven units are adapted from acustom textbook on introductory statistics. These selected chapters are specifically designed forthe use of OUHK STAT S242 students; they will contain a full range of statistical analysis methodsand graphical capabilities, along with some built-up Excel worksheets. Excel class activities willalso be provided during the tutorials.

Course Aims

The overall aims of STAT S242 Statistics in Society are to:

• Introduce the general concepts of data production, data analysis and statistical inference todraw conclusions about the important parameters of the underlying population.

• Provide a simple, yet critical, introduction to exploratory data analysis and statisticalreasoning.

• Introduce a wide diversity of applications of statistics in everyday-life problems.

• Explore the use of computing technology to perform statistical data analysis.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of STAT S242 Statistics in Society, you should be able to:

• Present, visualize, and graphically display basic statistical relationships for a given dataset.

• Explain the basic concept of probability, and outline its applications.

• Determine sampling error and sampling distribution.

• Use parametric statistical tests to perform hypothesis testing in scientific research.

• Use non-parametric statistical tests to perform hypothesis testing for decision-making indaily-life problems.

• Explore the relationship between two factors, and apply this to daily-life problems.

• Design surveys and questionnaire for market research.

2 STAT S242 Statistics in Society

What to do before the course beginsSTAT S242 has no required courses as prerequisites. The course material has also been written forstudents with very little mathematical experience. We assume that you can do some arithmetic(with the help of a calculator), and that you understand simple tables and graphs. Don’t worry,however, if you find that prospect a little alarming, because there should be plenty of time for youto get a bit of practice and gain confidence.

Course Guide

The first thing to do is to read this Course Guide.

This guide contains important information about the course structure and the assessment strategy.

Course schedule

The course schedule is available on the STAT S242 Online Learning Environment (OLE). Thistimetable is designed to give general guidelines on how you can complete your study, and to tellyou the assignment cut-off dates and the schedule for face-to-face sessions.

Calculator

You will need a calculator for this course. You’ll need to know how to use your calculator right atthe beginning of the course, so you should spend some times getting used to it before the coursebegins. Even if you have owned one for some time, you may still find it useful to get some morepractice.

You will be allowed to bring a calculator into the examination room, but only OUHK-approvedmodels. A list of approved calculator models can be found on the STAT S242 OLE.

Home computer

It is essential that you have access to a home PC with an Internet connection for this course.

Most units in this course have a section based on using statistical software in the TechnologyCenters that appear throughout the textbook. Spreadsheets and step-by-step procedures forconducting statistical and data analysis are provided in these Technology Centers. They willrequire the use of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

For working with these Excel spreadsheets, you will need to install a statistics add-in softwarepackage called XLSTAT on your computer. This version of XLSTAT is specifically built forPearson statistical analysis with an add-in tool. It offers a wide variety of functions to enhance theanalytical capabilities of Microsoft Excel®. XLSTAT is compatible with all Excel versions(except 2008 for Mac).

A Student Access Kit will be provided together with the textbook for you to install the XLSTATsoftware.

Your home computer should therefore be installed with Microsoft Windows (Windows 7 or above)and Microsoft Excel.

Course Guide 3

Working through this courseIn this course’s custom textbook-based approach, the course’s learning modules comprise chaptersfrom a leading statistics textbook, and two study units developed by the OUHK.

You should begin your study of this course by watching the introductory video available on theOUHK’s Online Learning Environment (OLE) of this course.

Your study pathway through this custom textbook is set out in an OUHK-produced study guide. Inaddition to the guided activities and self-tests already provided in the custom textbook, the studyguide includes supplementary material and additional self-assessment opportunities. You will alsohave access to multimedia materials on the OLE, and regular face-to-face meetings for lecturesand tutorials.

This course’s combination of the latest editions of textbooks, plus the study guide, and multimediaand face-to-face learning opportunities, will provide you with a rich coverage of currentdevelopments in international marketing.

The third main place you will refer to for learning resources during the course is the OLE. There,you will have access to a rich array of multimedia materials such as lecture PPT slides and onlinequizzes, and you will be able to discuss topics with other students and your tutor on the coursediscussion board.

This course is further supported by regular face-to-face meetings for lectures and tutorials.

Summary of study units

The course consists of nine units. The title and a short description of each unit is given below.

• Unit 1 Data analysis and descriptive statistics introduces the idea of statistical data andbegins to look at ways of collecting, organizing and summarizing statistical data usinggraphical presentations and analysis through your add-in Excel software.

• Unit 2 Price index and household income extends the descriptive measures you will havelearned in Unit 1. The statistical theme is developed in the context of questions related toprice indices and the standard of living in Hong Kong society.

• Unit 3 Measuring chance and probability introduces another aspect of inferential statisticscalled probability theory. This unit begins with some simple probability concepts.Probabilities enable you to evaluate the uncertainties that our conclusions drawn from anentire population. More generally, probability theory provides the mathematical basis forinferential statistics.

• Unit 4 Sample distribution and confidence intervals discusses the most important distributionin statistics, called the normal distribution. You will work with normally-distributedvariables, and assess normal probability plots. This unit’s coverage extends to the concepts ofsampling error and sampling distribution. You will develop important statistical-inferenceprocedures to examine the sample mean from a population to estimate and to drawconclusions about the entire population.

• Unit 5 Hypothesis tests for one population mean and Unit 6 Hypothesis tests for twopopulation means introduce you to statistical inferences. These units have two basic themes:one is concerned with the processes involved in collecting and using data from scientific andexperiments; the other involves the use and interpretation of statistics both by an individualand by society in general. The hypothesis tests for one and two populations will be discussed.You will learn how to use the critical value and P-value approaches to hypothesis testing. Inthese two units, both parametric and nonparametric methods will be examined.


• Unit 7 Categorical data analysis deals with inferential statistics that are not concerned withpopulation parameters. Instead, it will focus on the Chi-square distribution. You will learn thechi-square goodness-of-fit test and use the hypothesis test to decide whether a differenceexists among the distributions of a variable in two populations.

• Unit 8 Relationships and regression analysis examines the relationships between two or morequalitative variables. Linear regression and correlation coefficients are used to examinerelationships between two quantitative variables.

• Unit 9 Surveys and questionnaires extends the concepts you will have first encountered inUnit 1. The application of different sampling methods, including simple random sampling,cluster sampling, stratified sampling, and quota sampling, will be reviewed. The methods forconducting a marketing research survey and for designing an appropriate questionnaire willbe discussed.

(An outline of the contents of each unit can be found in Appendix A of this Course Guide.)

The custom textbook

The title of the custom textbook is STAT S242 Statistics in Society. This custom textbook willcomprise nine units, of which two units are developed by OUHK. The remaining seven units areadapted from a selected textbook, as set out below.

Textbook title

Weiss, Neil A (2015) Introductory Statistics, 10th Edition, Arizona State University(ISBN-10:0321989171).

Units 2 and 9 will be developed by the OUHK.

The Study Guide will indicate at which points you should read each chapter and do exercisesprovided in the custom textbook.

The Study Guide

The Study Guide serves two functions. First, it provides you with information on the aims,learning outcomes, assessment strategies, and means of support for this course. Second, it sets outyour study pathway through the customized textbook and other course learning resources, andself-assessment opportunities. You’ll therefore need to keep this document by your side as youwork through the course.

The Study Guide is divided into seven units. The titles of the units, the textbook chapters andreadings they will cover, are set out in the following table.

Course Guide 5

Unit(s) Textbook chapters and readings

Chap. 1 The Nature of Statistics

Chap. 2 Organizing Data

Unit 1 Data analysis anddescriptive statistics

Chap. 3 Descriptive Measures

Unit 3 Measuring chance andprobability

Chap. 4 Probability Concept

Chap. 6 The Normal Distribution

Chap. 7 The Sampling Distribution of theSample Mean

Unit 4 Sample distribution andconfidence intervals

Chap. 8 Confidence Intervals for OnePopulation Mean

Unit 5 Hypothesis tests for onepopulation mean

Chap. 9 Hypothesis Tests for OnePopulation Mean

Unit 6 Hypothesis tests for twopopulation means

Chap. 10 Hypothesis Tests for TwoPopulation Means

Unit 7 Categorical data analysis Chap. 13 Chi Square Procedures

Chap. 14 Descriptive Methods in Regressionand Correlation

Unit 8 Relationships andregression analysis

Chap. 15 Inferential Methods in Regressionand Correlation

Note: There is no Study Guide for the OUHK-developed Unit 2 and Unit 9.


The Online Learning Environment (OLE)

A dedicated area for STAT S242 students has been set up in the OUHK’s OLE. You will need tolog on regularly to the OLE to access the course discussion board and online supplementarylearning components.

Assignment submission and extension

This presentation of STAT S242 OLE includes the following three sub-components related to yourassignments:

1. Assignment File — all assignment questions will be posted on the OLE.

2. Assignment submission and extension. This component allows you to:

• check the status of your assignments;

• submit your assignments;

• check your assignment scores; and

• apply for extensions for late submission.

3. Assignment (multiple-choice) Submission — answers to the multiple-choice assignmentmust be submitted through the Assignment (MC) submission system. No postal mailing isaccepted.

Interactive tools

The OLE Interactive Tools includes the course Discussion Board. The Discussion Board allowsyou to post any problems that you would like to discuss with other students and your tutor. Inaddition, you can make use of the university email system; you can gain access to it through theOLE. Using it, you can send email to students, tutors, and your Course Coordinator, and receiveemail from them.

Face-to-face support via lectures and tutorials

You will be supported throughout the course by regular face-to-face meetings in the form ofsupplementary lectures and tutorials.

There are about 11 supplementary lectures and 11 tutorials provided for this course. All lecturesand tutorials will be two-hour sessions, and will be conducted by your assigned tutor.

You should refer to the course schedules for the details on lectures and tutorials arrangements.Although the lectures and tutorials are not compulsory, you are strongly advised to attend.

The video recording of lectures will be posted to the STAT S242 OLE after the session. You canview the recording in your own time.

Course Guide 7

Unit Face-to-face sessions Hrs

1 Supplementary lecture 1 (2 hours)Supplementary lecture 2 (2 hours)

Tutorial 1 (2 hours)

6

Tutorial 2 (2 hours) – PC Lab Activity 2

2 Supplementary lecture 3 (2 hours)Tutorial 3 (2 hours)

4


4

4 Supplementary lecture 5 (2 hours)Supplementary lecture 6 (2 hours)

Tutorial 5 (2 hours)

6


4


4


4


4


4

Tutorial 11 (Revision) 2

Total 44


Online lecture PPT slides

Each unit will be supported by one or two supplementary lectures. All lecture PPT slides will beavailable on the OLE for you to study after each session.

Units Media resources Hrs

1 Lecture 1 PPT slidesLecture 2 PPT slides

1.51.5

2 Lecture 3 PPT slides 1.5


4 Lecture 5 PPT slidesLecture 6 PPT slides

1.51.5






Total 16.5

Assessment

You are expected to apply concepts and techniques acquired during the study when completingthis course’s continuous assessment. You will also undertake regular activities and practicalexercises while working through the study units.

The course contains continuous assessment and a final examination. Each type of assessmentcontributes 50% on the course score. Continuous Assessment consists of five assignments ofwhich one is a multiple-choice assignment. The minimum passing threshold for both ContinuousAssessment and Examination is 40 marks out of 100 marks. In order to pass the course, you needto meet both thresholds.

Assignment booklets

The assignment booklets contain more information about which units are covered by eachassignment, and when you should submit your assignments. The assignment booklets will be sentto you during the presentation and posted on the OLE for you to download.

Assignment (multiple-choice)

There is one multiple-choice assignment in this course and this contains 20 to 30 multiple-choicequestions. This assignment assesses fundamental concepts related to statistical methods and data-handling skills. This assignment is required to be submitted through the Online Assignment (MC)Submission System.

Assignments

There are four summative assignments for the course. The best three out of four assignments rulewill be counted. Upon receiving your assignment, tutors will be required to mark the assignmentsand return them to you with your scores, comments, and feedback.

Course Guide 9

Assessment summary

The assessment items and their marks are outlined in the following table.

Type and coverage Weighting Numberrequired

Assignment (MC) 1 (required):20–30 Multiple choice questionscovering Unit 1

25% 1

Assignment 2 (summative):3–4 independent problem-solvingquestions covering Unit 2 and Unit 3

25%


25%


25%

ContinuousAssessment


25%

Select thebest 3 out of4

ExamA three-hour examination covering thewhole course

50%

Examination

The purpose of the examination is to assess your understanding of the material covered in theentire course. The three-hour final examination will be ‘closed book’, with the exception of theCourse Formula Booklet and Statistics Tables. The examination is worth 50% of the total coursemark. The exam paper will be divided into two parts:

• Part I will contain some short questions that assess your general knowledge of the coursematerial from all units.

• Part II will comprise more challenging long questions based on a problem-solving approach.The questions will assess your skills in statistical analysis and using methods of inferentialstatistics for the analysis of real-life problems, and in concluding results for recommendation.

Specimen examination

To help you prepare for the final examination, you will be sent a specimen examination papersome time before the actual examination. You should work through this carefully, together withthe sample solutions that will be provided.


Course overviewThe following table gives a general overview of the course structure. It suggests the amount oftime you should allow for completing units, and provides a broad schedule for you to plan yourwork. This estimation includes time for reading the units and custom textbook, completingactivities, self-tests and assignments, attending tutorials, and preparing for your final examination.

Units Weeks Assessment

Unit 1 Data analysis and descriptive statistics 4 Assignment (MC) 1

Unit 2 Price index and household income 3

Unit 3 Measuring chance and probability 3Assignment 2

Unit 4 Sample distribution and confidence intervals 4

Unit 5 Hypothesis tests for one population mean 3Assignment 3

Unit 6 Hypothesis tests for two population means 4

Unit 7 Categorical data analysis 3Assignment 4

Unit 8 Relationships and regression analysis 3

Unit 9 Surveys and questionnaires 3Assignment 5

Each study unit is designed to occupy you for three to four weeks. In general, we expect you tospend about 30-40 hours of working on a unit spanning a period of three to four weeks. Of course,you will probably find that some sections take you longer, while others require less time.

Using the study units

We are sure that you will learn about statistics only by actively working on statistical problems. Itis important that you do not simply sit in an armchair and read through the units. You must alwayswork with pen, paper, calculator, and an alert mind. To help you with this, we provide thefollowing features in the textbook.

• Examples: Examples illustrate points in the text or demonstrate how you should approach aparticular type of problem. Follow these through carefully; checking the calculations foryourself, and making sure you understand how they are arrived at for each stage.

• Exercise: At the end of each section of the unit, a set of exercises is designed to give youpractice in various techniques. You can work through them as you come to them, or later touse as part of your revision.

• Technology Center: This course includes computing activities using XLSTAT so you canpractise using Excel with the add-in tool to consolidate your work on data analysis.

• Review problems: You will find additional groups of exercises called review problems at theend of each unit. These provide extra practice if you need it, and may be a little moredemanding than the majority of the exercises within sections. You may regard these end-of-section exercises as optional; but at the risk of being repetitious, we recommend that you doas many of them as you can find the time for doing them.

• Focusing on Data Analysis: The Focusing on Data Analysis feature gives you the chance towork with large data sets, practice using XLSTAT, and discover the methods of exploring andanalysing large dataset problems.

• Case Study: A Case Study Discussion is provided at the beginning of each topic of theconcerned unit in which an opening case study is reviewed and discussed in light of the focuspoints, and then problems are presented for you to consider.

Course Guide 11

Other online supplementary materialsThis course contains other materials such as stop presses, errata, the course schedules, and ExcelData sets; all are available on the STAT S242 Online Learning Environment (OLE).

STAT S242 formula booklet and statistical tables

You may find this booklet useful as a source of reference while studying the course. The bookletcontains two sections.

• A glossary of short definitions and formula of technical words used in the course.

• A list of Statistical tables.

You will not be allowed to bring this booklet to the exam. An identical copy of this booklet will beprovided to you together with the exam paper.

Course schedules

The course schedule, which provides you with a timetable of important course activities andevents, is available on the Online Learning Environment (OLE). The organization of the calendaris meant to give you an indication of how you should arrange your study of the course. Rememberthat you must aim to submit your assignments by the indicated cut-off dates.

Stop presses

Throughout the presentation your Course Coordinator will send you stop presses that containimportant up-to-date information about various aspects of the course. You should read each ofthese as soon as you receive it. All stop presses will be posted on the STAT S242 OLE.

Errata

Any course errata will contain corrections to the study material and assignment questions. Youshould check and amend your text immediately as soon as you receive an erratum. All errata willbe posted to the STAT S242 OLE.

Data sets

More than 1,000 data sets in the examples and exercises of the textbook are installed in electronicfiles in several formats in the DATA Sets of the WeissStats site.

Since this course use Excel worksheet, for your convenient, all data sets in Excel formats areavailable online on the STAT S242 OLE.

To find these data sets, go to:STAT S242 OLE <Course Materials/ XLSTAT installation and Data Set>

Textbook Exercise Solution Guide

The detailed solution guide for all of the section exercises is posted on STAT S242 OLE. You cancheck your solution after working out the exercises.

To find the solution guide, go to:STAT S242 OLE <Course Materials/ Textbook Exercise Solution Guide>


XLSTAT Installation Procedure

Installing XLSTAT (Excel add-in) onto your computer is easy! An access code is packaged withyour textbook.

In order to help you to get started with the use of XLSTAT, a ‘Getting Started XLSTAT UserGuide’ is available on the STAT S242 OLE.

You can download it as follows, go to:STAT S242 OLE <Course Materials/ XLSTAT installation and Data Set>

Please follow the following two parts instructions. Please do not have any Microsoft Excelspreadsheets open during the installation.

Installation procedure

Part 1: Getting a License Key

1. Go to http://www.pearsonhighered.com/xlstat.

2. Enter the Access Code (provided together with the textbook).

3. Enter your Email Address.The screen that appears should look like the following:

4. Click Get Access.

5. A license key will be sent to you at your email address.

6. Go to your email inbox to get the license key.

Note: remember to write down your license key before downloading the XLSTATsoftware. An example of a license key is: 327500058747643463. You can find a cardwith your own key inside the textbook.

Course Guide 13

http://www.pearsonhighered.com/xlstat

Part 2: Downloading the XLSTAT software

1. Go to http://www.xlstat.com/xlstat.zip.

2. Save the zip file onto your computer.

3. Double click on xlstat.exe. The Install Shield Wizard will now appear.

4. Click Next when prompted. Allow time for the program to run.

5. Agree to the license terms, and click Install.

6. Once the installation process is complete, click Finish. Be sure to have the box checked forLaunch XLSTAT. Microsoft Excel will pop up. Please choose Enable Macros.

7. Once the window appears, please click Register.

8. An Activation Required message box will appear. Be sure to select Activate XLSTAT andclick Continue.


http://www.xlstat.com/xlstat.zip

9. Input your License Key: e.g. 327500058747643463 (which will give you a 12-monthsubscription) and then, click Activate.

The installation is complete at this point, an icon (XLSTAT 2015) will appear on your computer’sdesktop. Please check!

Course Guide 15

Where to get helpIf you find yourself having any trouble with any aspect of this course, there are several ways youcan find help.

From your tutor

Your tutor is there to help you understand the ideas in the course, and the best way for him or herto do this is through the comments written on your assignment scripts. When your assignment isreturned, go through the script and take note of the comments written by your tutor; they will helpyou avoid similar errors in later assignments and in the examination. Also try to attend tutorialsand surgeries because there you will have the opportunity to talk to your tutor directly and, just asimportantly, to talk to other students.

From your fellow students

One of the best ways of learning is by talking about your work with fellow students.Unfortunately, you will see them only at the infrequent tutorials during the year. That leaves a lotof weeks when you could be on your own. Make sure then that you have the addresses andtelephone numbers of other STAT S242 students in your area; that way, you can stay in touch morefrequently. You might even like to form your own self-help group to meet regularly; this is often agood way of getting people to discuss common difficulties, especially in the assessment questions.

From the Course Coordinator

If there are any academic queries that your tutor cannot settle for you, then your tutor willprobably advise you to contact the Course Coordinator. The Course Coordinator for this course is:

From the OLE discussion board and email

OLE: Problems and queries can be posted for students and tutors to offer help. This has been apopular way for students to get help. Often you can find that the answer to your problem in asimilar problem posted by another student.

Email: Each student and tutor has an email account for direct communication between individualsand groups. Most of the news and comments from the Course Coordinator and tutor will be sent toyou through this email system.


Keeping up with the course scheduleIt is important to keep as close to the schedule laid down in the course schedule as you can (ofcourse there is no harm in being ahead of it, but few students are in the fortunate position of beingable to keep that up for any length of time). The main reason for keeping up to schedule is that youwill lose marks if you miss any questions on the assignments. For many of the assignments, thecut-off date is very soon after the end of the study week for the last of the relevant units. Werecommend that you finish the assignment questions for each unit as soon as you finish the unit,otherwise you will have a lot of work to do in a few days before the cut-off date.

If you have not done all the work in time for an assignment, you should still submit as much of theassignment as you can do, and start the new unit on time. As a matter of survival, it is moreimportant to start each unit on time than to do every assignment question.

If it becomes apparent during your study that you will not have enough time to do all the work init, you will have to make some decisions about which parts of which units to leave out. Suchomissions will, in general, cause you to lose marks in your assignments, but this is better thangetting hopelessly behind and dropping out.

Course Guide 17

Appendix A: Course Contents

Unit 1 Data analysis and descriptive statistics

• The nature of statistics (Weiss Chapter 1)

– Case study: Greatest American screen legends

– Statistics basics

– Simple random sampling

– Other sampling designs

– Experimental designs

• Organizing Data (Weiss Chapter 2)

– Case study: 25 Highest paid women

– Variables and data

– Organizing qualitative data

– Organizing quantitative data

– Distribution shapes

– Misleading graphs

• Descriptive Measures (Weiss Chapter 3)

– Case study: US Presidential election

– Measures of center

– Measures of variation

– The Five-Number summary and boxplots

– Descriptive measures for populations and use of samples

Unit 2 Price index and household income

• A simple chained index

– Case study

– Weighted mean

– Use of weighted mean

– Two commodities price indices

– Chained index

• Consumer Price Index (CPI)

– Background to CPI in Hong Kong

– Types of CPI in Hong Kong

– Household Expenditure Survey

– Monthly Retail Price Survey

– Chained price index

– CPI and inflation

• Boxplots

– Augmented 5-figures summary

– Deciles and Deciles boxplots


• Household income

– Case study

– Population census

– Income and Inflation

– Inflation and unemployment

– The Gini Coefficient

Unit 3 Measuring chance and probability

• Probability Concepts (Weiss Chapter 4)

– Case study: Texas Hold’em

– Probability basics and events

– Some rules of probability

– Contingency tables; joint and marginal probabilities

– Conditional probability

– The multiplication rule and independence

– Bayes’s rule and counting rules

Unit 4 Sample distribution and confidence intervals

• The normal distribution (Weiss Chapter 6)

– Case study: Chest Sizes of Scottish Militiamen

– Introduce normally distributed variables

– Areas under the standard normal curve

– Working with normally distributed variables

– Assessing normality; normal probability plots

– Normal approximation to the binomial distribution

• The Sampling Distribution of the Sample Mean (adopt Weiss Chapter 7)

– Case study: The Chesapeake and Ohio Freight Study

– Sampling error; then need for sampling distributions

– The mean and standard deviation of the sample mean

– The sampling distribution of the sample mean

• Confidence Intervals for One Population Mean (adopt Weiss Chapter 8)

– Case study: The ‘Chips Ahoy! 1,000 Chips Challenge’

– Estimating a population mean

– Confidence intervals for one population mean when σ is known

– Confidence intervals for one population mean when σ is unknown

Unit 5 Hypothesis tests for one population mean

• Hypothesis Tests for One Population Mean (Weiss Chapter 9)

– Case study: Gender and sense of direction

– The nature of hypothesis testing

– Critical-value approach to hypothesis testing

– P-value approach to hypothesis testing

Course Guide 19

– Hypothesis tests for one population mean when σ is known

– Hypothesis tests for one population mean when σ is unknown

– Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test

– Type II error probabilities

Unit 6 Hypothesis tests for two population means

• Inferences for Two Population Means (Weiss Chapter 10)

– Case Study: HRT and cholesterol

– The sampling distribution of the difference between two sample means for independentsamples

– Inferences for two population means, using independent samples: standard deviationsassumed equal

– Inferences for two population means, using independent samples: standard deviations notassumed equal

– Mann-Whitney test

– Inferences for two population means, using paired samples

– Paired Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test

Unit 7 Categorical data analysis

• Chi-Square Procedures (Weiss Chapter 13)

– Case study: Eye and hair color

– Chi-Square distribution

– Chi-Square goodness-of-fit test

– Contingency tables and association

– Chi-Square independence test

– Chi-Square homogeneity test

Unit 8 Relationships and regression analysis

• Descriptive Methods in Regression and Correlation (Weiss Chapter 14)

– Case Study: Shoe size and height

– Linear equations with one independent variable

– The regression equation

– The coefficient of determination

• Inferential Methods in Regression and Correlation(Weiss Chapter 15)

– Case study: Shoe size and height

– The regression model and analysis of residuals

– Inferences for the slope of the population regression line

– Estimation and prediction

– Inferences in correlation

Unit 9 Surveys and questionnaires

• Sampling

– Population and sampling

– Is sampling essential in all studies?


• Randomization

– Randomization is essential

– Randomization by Random Number Table

• Sampling methods

– Simple random sampling

– Systematic sampling

– Stratified sampling

– Cluster sampling

– Quote sampling

• Surveys

– Steps in conducting a survey

– Mode of data collection

– Non-response reduction

– Applications in marketing surveys

• Questionnaires

– Piloting a questionnaire

– Question types

– Question sequences

• Rating scale

Course Guide 21

Documents

STAT S242 - Course Guide 191 · 2019. 1. 8. · Course Guide Welcome to STAT S242 Welcome toSTAT S242 Statistics in Society! This Course Guide contains essential information about