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Statistically speaking, the odds are about one in five that if you are reading this, you are in the position of having to take a statistics course--against your will and/or your better judgment! If that's your situation, you are absolutely in the right place. Many stats courses focus on preparing you to be a statistical producer. In contrast, in this course the focus is on helping you learn to be a better statistical consumer. Not only will you ultimately find this much more useful, but also this perspective will help you understand--and even come to appreciate--basic statistical concepts. Statistical analysis suggests a high probability that taking this course will result in "significant" breakthroughs in your understanding of the logic of science, and also how statistics are used in your day-to-day life to inform, convince, or even mislead you.
Not everybody responds well to online courses. Basically, in an online course students must assume the bulk of the responsibility for their own learning. The instructor is more like a guide or "super resource" than a "hand holder." There's no one there to work problems on the board on a daily basis. For example, even submitting homework can be more difficult because of the electronic medium. As a result, online courses generally take more work than in-class courses. For this course, you can expect to spend a minimum of 10-15 hours per week, depending on the material being discussed. For summer versions of this course, the workload can be significantly higher.
The primary key to success in online courses is student discipline. You will need to be diligent about setting aside the time necessary to study, review, and practice the material in this course. Within the overall structure and schedule, you have control over how to organize your work. If you are a "morning person" then try to do most of your work early in the day, and so forth.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that you are not alone! There are a number of other students taking this class "with" you, and your instructor is available to you in a number of different ways. In addition to simply spending the time necessary to learn the material, you will need to stay in touch. The online discussion area of the course will become an important resource.
The discussion area of the course will prove a very valuable resource. You will be required to participate in topical discussions for almost every teaching unit. In addition, there will be a general discussion area where you can share your insights or ask/answer questions of/from your classmates.
UW Colleges Catalog Course Description for PSY 210: Statistical Methods in Psychology - 3 credits. An introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics. Topics include measures of central tendency, measures of variability, correlation and regression, sampling distributions, and hypothesis testing procedures including t-tests and analysis of variance. This course fulfills the UWC requirement for Mathematical Sciences (MS).
Prerequisites: PSY 201 or 202 (grade of C- or better) or concurrent registration and introductory college algebra (MAT 105), or exemption, or consent of instructor.
This is an overview course. You will be expected to achieve a basic knowledge of statistical concepts and the experimental method, and learn how to apply that knowledge. The course will cover descriptive and inferential statistics, the basics of samples and populations, and some common statistical test procedures. The course will emphasize the following four areas:
There are things in this course that must be learned, but the only memorization requirements will be for vocabulary, some limited statistical symbols, and the simple formulas for basic statistics such as the mean, variance and z-scores. You need to be able to "talk the talk" of statistics and to recognize basic tests and parameters. For the most part, however, no extensive memorization of computational formulas will be needed.
The emphasis is on concepts and applications rather than on raw computational ability. However, you WILL be required to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in this course! Computation is often the best or most appropriate way to illustrate an important point. What you will mainly need to understand is how, why, when, and where to use a particular statistical approach.
Successful completion of this course will enhance students' ability to
The most current edition of MS Office (containing MS Word and other valuable programs) is available to University of Wisconsin students at discounted prices through the Wisconsin Integrated Software Catalog.
This is freely distributed software that lets you view and print Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, please download it by visiting http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
Howard Bashinski
Tirza Shulman
