How to take Statistics
online
PLEASE OH PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON TOP read this entire document. Do not be so foolish as to only watch the videos. Is there overlap between the text below and the videos? Of course there is. But to keep the videos short I do not cover everything that is written below. That being said, it is your education. You can put, or not put, as much effort into it as you wish. I am not the smartest guy in the room but I have gone far through working harder than the average bear. But you can probably read it quicker than it will take you to watch the videos.
Videos
How to navigate our website (341online_navigate.mov)
The rules of the course (341online_rules.mov)
How to find content and study for tests (341online_sch.mov)
How to play videos of lecture while logged on to laulima (341_laulima.lecture.video.mov)
Warning! People fail this class! (341warning.mov)
If you do this I am giving you an F! (email.mov)
Even though this is
an online course, please talk to your professor as needed!
Here are the best ways to contact me and when I am available.
For online students, I do not want you to think that we are restricted to email communication. I love speaking with online students in person an on the phone and I think speaking to each other is still the most effective communication tool we have -- we wil get a whole lot more done in a whole lot less time! In fact, we can accomplish things much more efficiently by actually speaking with each other rather than email. Online students should pay special attention to that idea – talking erases confusion about 50 times faster than email! If you we cannot meet in person, a phone call is far better at erasing confusion than email. And if you live off island UHWO will even pay for the phone call! Send me a Laulima email to set up a date and time for a phone call.
If possible it is best to meet in person if you become confused. Obviously my office hours are the most convenient but I can make appointments other than my office hours and we can meet off campus too (within reason). See the contact link for more information.
Unless you are confused on a very small item, email is not a very good tool or erasing confusion. It is fine for asking basic questions, but it will not work for explaining complex concepts. So if you have questions regarding the lecture material we will probably need to speak – in person or on the phone.
Email
We will use Laulima email exclusively for this course. Since it is an online course I need to keep all of my emails in one place. So if you email me on my normal hawaii.edu account, I will respond using Laulima email.
I am able respond to emails within two working days, Monday through Friday. Generally speaking, M-F, I have about a 24-hour turnaround, but I say two days just to be safe. There are occasions when my other teaching, research, and service duties make the time stretch to two working days. I do occasionally get sick as well, but again thats rare.
Do not send me two emails!
When you compose a message do NOT select to send it to my other email address (my hawaii.edu account).
I get two emails from you that way. And
it will not result in an earlier reply. I cannot even reply
to you from my normal UH email account.
I am not trying to be difficult, just explaining to you that it will NOT result
in an earlier reply from me and it simply fills up my other email inbox with messages
to which I cannot even reply!
Do NOT check the box Send a copy of this message to the recipients
email address(es)
WARNING:
people get Fs in statistics! (but
most get As)
Hopefully I just got your attention. Let me focus your attention even more
Real Grades From
Statistics
4 Fs
1 D
1 C
4 Bs
8 As
People fail statistics because they procrastinate, not because the material is too hard. You cannot procrastinate in statistics like a normal class! People who procrastinate in statistics get Fs. Why?
Statistics is higher order learning and what you learn in
lecture #1 will be used to understand lecture #2. What you learn in lecture #2 will be used to
understand lecture #3, and so on and so on.
So if you are confused in lecture #1, do not get help, and move on to
lecture #2, you will be even more confused.
And the longer you wait, the worse the
confusion becomes.
That means statistics is unlike a normal class where you can fake it or make up all the work at the end of the semester. If you wait too long you become hopelessly confused and that leads to Fs, and sometimes Ds and Cs.
Good News! People who do not procrastinate get As and Bs!
Look at the grade distribution above again. Did you notice that most students got As? Most people get As and Bs and there are few Cs and Ds. In fact there were twice as many As and Bs than Ds and Fs. The people who got Ds and Fs were smart people; they just procrastinated.
The take home message is if you do not procrastinate, seek help when confused, and submit early drafts, you will most likely get a high grade in this class. If you procrastinate look forward to an F or hopefully a D; it is not you or me, it is just the course content.
This class requires
a different strategy than other college courses
Lets face it, in some classes you can procrastinate and make up all the work at the last minute and still get a decent grade. Not in statistics!
You have to employ a different strategy studying for this class than virtually any other college course. You have to work ahead and send me early drafts of assignments. You have to work ahead following my course schedule and send me early drafts. (Did I say you need to work ahead following my course schedule and send me drafts?)
Since statistics requires higher order learning, it is best to turn in early drafts. That is why I encourage students to do one problem at a time on the take home tests and say, Do not wait and do the whole test at one time. Doing all the problems on the take home tests is overwhelming! And super hard! Most who attempt it are very lost and receive low grades.
Everyone gets confused in Statistics!
It is VERY natural to become confused in statistics! Everyone becomes confused at some point. I certainly did when I was taking this course.
When you become confused YOU NEED HELP IMMEDIATELY! DO NOT WAIT.
Statistics is higher order learning and what you learn in
lecture #1 will be used to understand lecture #2. What you learn in lecture #2 will be used to
understand lecture #3, and so on and so on.
So if you are confused in lecture #1, do not get help, and move on to
lecture #2, you will be even more confused.
And the longer you wait, the worse the
confusion becomes.
If possible it is best to meet in person if you become confused. Obviously my office hours are the most convenient but I can make appointments other than my office hours and we can meet off campus too. Send me a Laulima email to set up an appointment regardless of where and when you want to meet.
If you we cannot meet in person, a phone call is far better at erasing
confusion than email. And if you live
off island UHWO will even pay for the phone call! Send me a Laulima email to set up a date and
time for a phone call.
Unless you are confused on a very small item, email is not a very good tool or erasing confusion. It is fine for asking basic questions, but it will not work for explaining complex concepts. So if you have questions regarding the lecture material we will probably need to speak – in person or on the phone.
You can access
lectures and assignments without logging on to Laulima
You can access our homepage without logging on to Laulima with the following URL:
https://laulima.hawaii.edu/access/content/user/hallston/341website/341homeOL.htm or http://tinyurl.com/puba341OL
You will have to logon to Laulima to use our email system and take the online tests.
Where to find
lectures, take home tests, assignments, and due dates for everything
Lectures, take home tests, assignments, and due dates for everything in the course can be found on the course schedule on the homepage URL above.
You are to read the book, the lectures, and do the practice problems from the lecture and the suggested exercises from the book. To understand statistics you need to do statistics. That means doing practice problems I created and exercises from the book is studying for the exams.
If you become confused when doing practice problems or book exercises, ask for help! It is okay to be confused. It is not a good idea to remain confused!
Collect data for
take home tests using HW#1 and #2
The first thing you do in this course will be to send me a proposed questionnaire so you can collect some data. You are going to modify one of my questionnaires found in the HW#1 instructions found on the course schedule and email it to me. I will make sure your questionnaire is ethical and will send it back to you. Then you will collect your data and enter into SPSS.
In HW#2 you will enter the data from your surveys into SPSS and send me your data set in SPSS. That SPSS data set will be used on the two take home tests.
Tests
There are 4 tests in this course. All are open book open note. Even though they are open book and open note is important that you study for them – especially the online exams as they are timed. Study for all exams by doing the practice problems from the lectures and exercises in the book. Do the practice problems from lecture, and then move on to the problems from the book as needed.
Some tests will be taken online using Laulima. Others will be take home exams; you will do statistics on your own data set for the take home exams. Deadlines for all exams are found in the course schedule. The links to the online exams are found in the task bar in the upper left hand corner of the Laulima screen. The links to the take home exams are on both the homepage and the course schedule.
Online tests
The first two tests are taken online and are timed. You will need both a calculator and the formula sheets (found on our homepage) to take the online tests; have both ready before you start the exams.
It is VERY important that you print out the formula sheet and use it for test 1 and test 2. You will need both a calculator and the formula sheets to take the online tests; have both ready before you start the exams.
The online tests do NOT use your data set created in HW #2. Just study for the online tests like a normal in class test using the practice problems
Take home tests
The second two tests are take home exams, which require you to do calculations on your own data set. Said another way, the take home tests have you do statistical computations using a statistics computer program [or application or ap.] You will analyze data you have collected from a survey given to 15 people.
So, on the take home tests, you will do statistical calculations on a computer using your very own digital data set. That way you can work together and it is not cheating. But as long as you write your own answers [and do not simply cut and paste], it is not cheating.
[By they way, if you are confused, get help from me – not a classmate. Sometimes that is a bit like the blind leading the blind, so to speak.]
Book is not
required but you MUST use SPSS computer software!
The book is NOT required. It out of print, but if you can find it used I recommend it. See syllabus for book information.
However a statistical software program called SPSS is required! You can buy a student base pack version that is a 6-month rental. There is a PC version and a Mac version and each costs around $39. It is well worth it. Check out the website www.onthehub.com and search for IBM SPSS Statistics.
Windows version
IBM®
SPSS® Statistics Base GradPack 19 for Windows (06-Mo Rental)
Available to: Students $35.00 + $4.99 Download Fee Quantity:
MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect 
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Platforms: Windows
IBM® SPSS® Statistics Base GradPack - includes:
Statistics Base
Mac version
IBM®
SPSS® Statistics Base GradPack 19 for Mac (06-Mo Rental)
Available to: Students $35.00 + $4.99 Download Fee Quantity:
MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect 
Platforms: Mac OS 10.5x or Higher
IBM® SPSS® Statistics Base GradPack - includes:
Statistics Base
I do not recommend it, because of the limited hours and geographical restrictions, but you can use SPSS for free at the UWHO computer lab (if you are on another island check with your computer lab regarding SPSS). I strongly recommend you buy the student version of SPSS. It is quite reasonable online. I just googled SPSS student version and found the newest version for as little as $60 and earlier versions for even cheaper (see note below about using earlier versions). Trust me the $39 is well worth it. Besides you do not have to buy a book, so think of the $39 as a very cheap book!
My online instructions for using SPSS were done using SPSS 16.0 (on a Mac), but I would guess that they will work for earlier versions, although there may be slight differences.
Recap
To summarize: read the syllabus to see exactly how your grade will be determined. All assignments and due dates for them and lectures can be found on the course schedule. We are going to have four exams in this class; some tests will be taken online and some will be take home exams where you do statistics on your own data. The first assignment asks you to propose an ethical questionnaire. I will return it to you and (AFTER you receive permission from me) you will collect the data. Then you will put it into SPSS format and email it back to me. You will use that data to complete take home exams.