Download Statistics Courses Dedicated to the Functional

DASI Session at DSI
Austin, TX
November 2016
Engaging Students and Making Statistics
Meaningful for Business Majors
Mark L. Berenson, Montclair State University
“Teaching Business Statistics Courses Dedicated
to the Functional Area Disciplines”
Today’s “Typical” Student
Is very technologically savvy
Is woefully underprepared mathematically
Is not well-read
Has not learned to take notes
Has not learned to make connections
Has a very limited attention span
Questions to be Resolved
How can we work best with such underprepared
and often uninterested students?
How do we get such students to think quantitatively
to enhance their decision-making ability?
How do we get such students to appreciate the
value of using statistics in their daily lives?
How do we get such students to have GRIT???
Students Need to be Motivated
and Engaged to Succeed
We need to demonstrate why they should want
to learn statistics
We need to provide data with applications that
may be of interest to them
Enhance Student Motivation:
Teach Discipline-Specific Courses
 Quantitative Orientation:
Introductory Statistics for Finance
Introductory Statistics for Accounting
Introductory Statistics for Analytics
 Non-Quantitative Orientation:
Introductory Statistics for Marketing
Introductory Statistics for Management
Discipline-Specific Courses
CONTENT
Topic Commonality:
Data Visualization and Descriptive Statistics
Simple Linear Regression
Introduction to Probability and Approach to Inference
Other topics are discipline specific.
All applications are discipline specific.
Discipline-Specific Courses
GOALS
Foster Active Learning Through a Term Project :
Students work individually or on teams:
Finance: Each selects a company and a comparison of
market performance is made among chosen companies.
Marketing: Each selects a marketing project with
evaluation and critique from another
Improve Written and Oral Presentation Skills:
Students develop either individual or team project
reports with classroom presentations.
Introductory Statistics for Finance
TOPICS
Review of fundamental mathematics for finance majors.
Data visualization through tables and charts with finance
applications.
Numerical descriptive measures in finance (including the Sharpe
ratio).
Introduction to index numbers with emphasis on the CPI-U and S&P
500 Index.
Descriptive statistics introduction to simple linear regression
modeling with specific finance applications.
Resampling methods approach to statistical inference -- bootstrap
percentile confidence interval estimation of investment measures
and permutation testing for the slope.
Introduction to decision-making with applications in investing.
Teaching Approaches
Quantitative Disciplines: Finance, Accounting, Analytics
Develop concepts using formulas
Demonstrate algebraic connections
Use computer software for obtaining most results and
for most data analysis
Introductory Statistics for Marketing
TOPICS
Review of fundamental mathematics for marketing majors.
Questionnaire Design and Sampling
Data visualization through tables and charts with marketing
applications in Pivot Table drilldowns.
Brief introduction to probability through cross-classification tables.
Numerical descriptive measures in marketing.
Normal Distribution, Sampling Distributions of X and P, and C.L.T.
Classical approach to statistical inference using marketing
applications -- confidence interval estimation for µ and П,
comparison of two means and two proportions, comparison of
multiple means and multiple proportions.
Simple linear regression modeling (descriptive and inferential) with
marketing applications.
Teaching Approaches
Non-Quantitative Disciplines: Marketing or Management
Stress concepts through definitions
Minimize use of symbols, formulas, and algebraic
expressions
Use computer software for obtaining all results and for
all data analysis
Teaching Approaches
Other Disciplines (IT, IB) or Undecided
Teach traditional “general” business statistics course
BUT
Stress concepts through definitions
Minimize use of symbols, formulas, and algebraic
expressions
Use computer software for obtaining all results and
for all data analysis
Force Student Engagement in
Non-Quantitative Discipline Courses:
“Flip” the Classroom
Make students accountable and responsible for
their own learning.
Become the coach and facilitator to guide their
learning.
Give students confidence they can learn on their
own throughout their lives.