Download BENEDICTINE UNIVERSITY

COURSE PHILOSOPHY -- STATISTICS
In an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Sharon Rubin, assistant dean at the University of Maryland,
states that all course syllabi, in addition to providing the basic information on texts, topics, schedule, etc., should
answer certain questions. The instructor of this course would like to share these questions with you, and provide
some answers.
You are what you know. You are what you can do.
"What value can you add to our organization?"
1. WHY SHOULD A STUDENT WANT TO TAKE THIS COURSE?
As a decision-maker, you must learn how to analyze and interpret quantitative information. Such skills will
improve your ability to adopt the questioning attitude and independence of thought that are essential to
leadership and success in any field. You may also have the opportunity to introduce statistical data analyses
in areas where they are not currently in use, thus improving the quality of your organization's decisions.
2. WHAT IS THE RELEVANCE OF THIS COURSE TO THE DISCIPLINE?
Statistics courses are part of the curriculum in many of BU's programs. But since this course is part of a
program leading to a degree in business, let us interpret the word "discipline" in this question to mean
"management." This can refer to marketing management, financial management, human resource
management, etc., even the management of your personal affairs. To MANAGE something requires the
ability to exert some CONTROL over it, and the ability to exert control requires identification of
DEPENDENCIES. In order to manage sales performance, for example, you must find things upon which
sales depends (e.g. advertising budget; product price; number, training, and compensation of salespersons;
interest rates; and competitive factors), and learn something about the nature of the dependencies. Statistics
is the major tool for identifying dependencies.
Another example of the importance of identifying dependencies: a new disease appears. Researchers
immediately try to find things that enhance the occurrence rate or the severity of the illness (positive
dependencies), and things that reduce them (negative dependencies). Only after such things are found can
there be any hope of controlling the disease. Again, statistical analysis plays a major role.
Or, the objective may simply be to know more about how the world works. So-called "pure research" has no
immediate application, but seeks to find relationships among things, thereby securing knowledge that may
become useful in the future.
CAREFUL STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF DATA OFTEN RESULTS IN THE IDENTIFICATION OF
DEPENDENCIES, and this is the reason why statistics is an important tool in virtually all disciplines.
3. HOW DOES THIS COURSE FIT INTO THE "GENERAL EDUCATION" PROGRAM?
Statistics is a major way in which human beings learn about the world, and how to control it. To be familiar
with a tool as fundamental and important as this is a responsibility of every educated person.
Statistics can be viewed as applied quantitative logic, usually seeking to make inferences about unknown
parameters on the basis of observations and measurements of samples drawn from a target population.
The study of statistics can promote clear and careful thinking, enhance problem-solving skills, and strengthen
one's ability to avoid premature conclusions. These are traits of the educated person, and are the mental
qualities essential for "knowledge workers" in modern society.
4. WHAT ARE THE OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE?
The most important objective is the development of your ability to learn this kind of material on your own, and
to continue learning more about the subject after the course is over. Continuous and independent learning is
an important activity of every successful person. In connection with the objective of independent learning, the
instructor will expect students to study and learn certain topics in the course without formal discussion of them
in class. Questions on these topics, of course, are always welcomed and encouraged.
With respect to specific objectives, they are: that students learn the terminology, theory, principles, and
computational procedures related to basic descriptive and inferential statistics; and the careful cultivation of
the logical processes involved in statistical inference. This will enable students to understand statistics and
communicate statistical ideas using generally-accepted terminology.
Another important objective is that students become aware of the limitations of various statistical procedures.
This is particularly important since most students in this course will be consumers rather than providers of
statistical information and conclusions. Estimates and forecasts, for example, are generally regarded with too
much faith, and relied upon to a degree not warranted in light of their inherent limitations.
5. WHAT MUST STUDENTS DO TO SUCCEED IN THIS COURSE?
Your activities in this course should include: reading and studying the relevant sections of the text; attending
class and taking notes; rewriting, reviewing, and studying your notes; working the recommended exercises in
the text; practicing and experimenting with various spreadsheet files supplied by the instructor; asking and
answering questions in class; spending time just thinking about the procedures and their underlying logic;
forming a study group with other students to review notes on terminology and concepts, and to practice
problem-solving skills; and taking the quizzes.
These activities should help you to further develop your abilities to read, listen, record, and organize important
information; and to communicate, analyze, compute, and learn independently the subject matter of statistics.
In order to do well, students must recognize a basic difference between courses like statistics and courses like
history, philosophy, management or organizational strategy. In the latter type, the emphasis is often on
general ideas in broad contexts, with grades based on essay exams and term papers in which students have
considerable latitude to choose what they are going to discuss. The cogent expression and defense of wellreasoned opinion are highly valued. Students with good verbal, logical and writing skills often excel in this type
of course. Statistics, on the other hand, is a skills course, requiring precise knowledge of concepts,
terminology, and computational procedures. Verbal skills are still important, but now quantitative logic and
computational competence are also critical. Grades are based on knowledge of terminology and concepts,
and even more on the ability to get the right answers to problems.
Regarding study strategy, it is extremely important for most students to read about statistics, to think about
statistics and to do a few problems every day. The most common error is to neglect the material until shortly
before a quiz. But for most students, many of the concepts in statistics are new and strange, and there will be
many places where they are stopped cold: "What?" "I just don't get this!" Then there is no time left to
cultivate the understanding of new concepts and to refine the computational procedures. Anyone can learn
statistics, but most cannot do it overnight.
As with most courses, this course is organized with the most fundamental material coming first. In learning a
new language, or how to play a musical instrument, or any new set of skills, mastery of the basics is essential
to success later on. The subject matter of statistics is not like history, where, if you did not study 14th century
France, it probably did not affect your learning about 17th century England. In statistics, failure to obtain a
good understanding of earlier material will have a serious adverse effect on your ability to make sense out of
what comes later. It is therefore essential to build a solid foundation of fundamental knowledge early in the
course in order to support the more elaborate logical and computational structures involved later.
6. WHAT ARE THE PREREQUISITES FOR THE COURSE?
The primary prerequisite is a logical mind. This course is computational, but it is not a "math" course.
Mathematical theorems are not derived or proven; the need to solve equations is very rare. The emphasis is
on concrete applications rather than abstract theory. Some students with good math backgrounds have done
poorly, while others with little or no math experience have done very well.
The best MBA stats student I ever had was a philosophy major who did not have single math course at the
college level. When asked about this, the he replied: "My philosophy major gave me excellent training in
logic, and that's really what this course requires."
7. OF WHAT IMPORTANCE IS CLASS PARTICIPATION?
In this course, class participation means frequently asking relevant questions and supplying answers (right or
wrong) to the instructor's and colleagues' questions as problems and examples are worked out and discussed.
These behaviors are evidence of active involvement with the material and will result in better learning and an
automatic positive effect on your grade. In grade border-line cases, a history of active participation will enable
the instructor to award the higher grade to the deserving student.
8. WILL STUDENTS BE GIVEN ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS, BASED ON DIFFERENT
LEARNING STYLES?
Different learning styles do exist. Some prefer a deductive method (deriving specific knowledge from general
principles), while others tend to prefer an inductive method (deriving the generalities from examples). The
inductive learners may need to work a number of problems before seeing the patterns that are present. The
deductive learners may never need to work a problem--they will know instinctively what to do. Some will not
like the book, and will learn primarily from the class presentations and discussions, while others will learn
mostly from the book and will find class time to be of lesser importance.
But the intended outcomes are the same for all--those in number 4 above.
9. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENTS?
Problems from the text may be suggested, for the purpose of providing practice in analyzing what must be
done, and in performing the required computations. Even though computer software is available to perform
calculations, students can gain insight into the logical structure of a sequence of computational steps if they go
through them several times by hand (i.e. using simple calculators).
Computer assignments using instructor-supplied spreadsheet files will require students to become more
familiar with spreadsheet software that they probably are or will be using in connection with their work. More
importantly, the spreadsheets allow students to experiment with data in order to investigate the quantitative
relationships involved. Such experimentation would be too tedious and time-consuming for manual or even
calculator computation.
10. WHAT WILL THE TESTS TEST? -- MEMORY? UNDERSTANDING? ABILITY TO SYNTHESIZE? TO
PRESENT EVIDENCE LOGICALLY? TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE IN A NEW CONTEXT?
The tests will test your ability to recognize and use statistical terminology correctly, and they will test your
understanding of the logic and principles underlying various statistical procedures. In addition, you will have to
demonstrate your ability to solve problems similar to those discussed in class, sometimes using computer
spreadsheet files.
There is a place for memorization in learning. It is not a substitute for comprehension, but it is better than
getting something wrong on a quiz that you were expected to know. As with prayers among small children,
memorization is often a first step, eventually followed by understanding. But if the memorization (of
terminology, for example) is not done, it is less likely that the comprehension will ever occur.
11. WHY HAS THIS PARTICULAR TEXT BEEN CHOSEN?
Our text is one of the most widely adopted introductory statistics books. It has gone through several editions,
and its popularity remains high. It is relatively easy to read, and its exercise material is excellent.
12. WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE LEVEL AND GRADES?
Consider this hypothetical but realistic situation.
Percentage Grade
Knowledge
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
Course A
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
Course B
100%
81%
64%
49%
36%
25%
16%
9%
4%
1%
Course A might be like philosophy, history, or management, where the grade is more-or-less proportional to
knowledge level. Course B might be like statistics or other skills courses, where small deficiencies in
knowledge can have disastrous effects on results. Overstudying is the best strategy for coping with this, with
the dual payoffs of higher grades and, more importantly, greater knowledge.
QUIZ
QUIZ
HW
0.667
0.333
HW
10
20
100
70.0
95
A
B
C
D
F
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
95
73.4
76.7
80.0
83.4
86.7
90.0
93.3
96.7
98.3
100
100
66.7
70.0
73.4
76.7
80.0
83.3
86.7
90.0
93.3
95.0
96.7
95
90
63.4
66.7
70.0
73.4
76.7
80.0
83.3
86.7
90.0
91.7
93.3
90
85
60.0
63.4
66.7
70.0
73.3
76.7
80.0
83.3
86.7
88.3
90.0
85
80
56.7
60.0
63.4
66.7
70.0
73.3
76.7
80.0
83.3
85.0
86.7
80
75
53.4
56.7
60.0
63.3
66.7
70.0
73.3
76.7
80.0
81.7
83.3
75
70
50.0
53.4
56.7
60.0
63.3
66.7
70.0
73.3
76.7
78.3
80.0
70
65
46.7
50.0
53.3
56.7
60.0
63.3
66.7
70.0
73.3
75.0
76.7
65
60
43.4
46.7
50.0
53.3
56.7
60.0
63.3
66.7
70.0
71.7
73.3
60
55
40.0
43.3
46.7
50.0
53.3
56.7
60.0
63.3
66.7
68.3
70.0
55
50
36.7
40.0
43.3
46.7
50.0
53.3
56.7
60.0
63.3
65.0
66.7
50
45
33.3
36.7
40.0
43.3
46.7
50.0
53.3
56.7
60.0
61.7
63.3
45
40
30.0
33.3
36.7
40.0
43.3
46.7
50.0
53.3
56.7
58.3
60.0
40
30
23.3
26.7
30.0
33.3
36.7
40.0
43.3
46.7
50.0
51.6
53.3
30
20
16.7
20.0
23.3
26.7
30.0
33.3
36.7
40.0
43.3
45.0
46.6
20
100
I can use Excel to
perform basic computations
prepare tables
create charts and graphs
conduct common statistical procedures
create dashboards
handle large data sets—“big data”
I can use Word to
create various kinds of documents
I can
compute
means
medians
variances
standard deviations
confidence intervals for means and proportions
use the
binomial distribution to answer probability questions
normal distribution to answer probability questions
chi-square distribution to answer probability questions
F distribution to answer probability questions
conduct
hypothesis tests on
the means of one group or two
the proportions of one group or two
hypothetical vs. observed distributions
variances of one group or two
group means using ANOVA
regression analysis to examine correlation and make forecasts
I can
perform financial analysis
compute the NPV of various investment opportunities
decide between using debt or equity to raise new funds
determine the optimum mix of debt and equity financing
compute cost-of-capital
decide whether to make or buy components for our products
determine how much direct labor, direct materials, and overhead is going into our products
create cash budgets
conduct cost-volume-profit analyses
prepare a master budget
prepare prformance reports using standard costs and variances
employ the scientific method to study problems that may come up