Applied statistics and data analysis courses exist in many disciplines. At BSU, there is evidence that our students have particular difficulty succeeding in these courses. What do these courses have in common, and what are we doing to support students in them? Our faculty panel from across the discplines will share their course designs, content, and strategies for student success.
The Descriptions
The following are some of the applied statistics and data analysis courses receive designation in the BSU Core Curriculum as "addressing an application of quantitative skills." (For more information on this requirement, and a QuAC position paper on it, see this document.)
Prerequisite: CRJU 201 and CRJU 410 and CRJU 420
This course teaches principles of statistical techniques as applied within criminal justice. By using criminal justice research problems, this course will cover topics including constructing testable research questions, organizing data, applying appropriate statistical tests and interpreting results. This course also teaches student how to evaluate government data, technical reports and empirical studies which summarize criminal justice data.
This course will provide students with an understanding of descriptive and inferential statistics. Students will develop the ability to analyze data and draw conclusions about large populations based on measures from sample data. The course will include hypothesis testing, ANOVA, simple linear regression, and the application of statistical methods to business and economic issues.
Prerequisite: One core curriculum requirement in Foundations of Mathematical Reasoning
This course provides students with a foundation for reading and assessing the quality of published research in the social sciences, with particular emphasis on the research techniques common in political science and public administration. It introduces the concepts of theory development, hypothesis testing and statistical significance, and provides students with the rudimentary skills, from literature review searches through data analysis necessary to conduct their own research. Writing is emphasized.
Prerequisite: PSYC 100 and MATH 100 or higher (except First and Second Year Seminars and MATH 408); or consent of instructor
Statistics for Psychology is primarily a course that will introduce students to the application of statistics to the research process in psychology. Statistics are used to describe and to critically evaluate information. The two branches of statistics, descriptive and inferential statistics, will be covered in this course. Specific procedures that may be covered include measures of central tendency and variability, visual description of data, z-scores, correlation and linear regression, basic probability, parametric tests such as z-tests, t-tests, analysis of variance (ANOVAs), and non-parametric tests such as the chi-square test.
This course is for social work majors who have not been exposed to statistical analysis. The course deals primarily with descriptive (i.e., summarizing and describing major characteristics of collected data) and inferential statistics (i.e., making predictions or inferences about the likelihood that relationships between variables within the data set also exist beyond the data collected). It prepares students to be knowledgeable consumers of social research by exposing them to the tools needed to appreciate, interpret, use, and integrate statistics within the practice of social work.
Prerequisite: SOCI 390 or consent of instructor
This course introduces students to quantitative data analysis. The course focuses on the major statistical techniques used in sociology and will emphasize data analysis in the context of substantive research problems. Topics covered include data analysis packages, choosing appropriate statistics, interpreting statistical results and presenting research findings. Offered either semester.
The Discussion
The descriptions for these courses make their commonalities evident. A main objective of this discussion is to facilitate the sharing of ideas regarding these courses across departments, beginning with:
Why do your majors need this course?
What prerequisites (both skills and courses) do students need for this course?
What are the course's biggest learning outcomes?
What is the course's content and performance tasks?
What have you found "works" for student success in the course?
Let's Change This
83%: The increased risk of a BSU student being unsuccessful in a Core-designated quantitative skills course in 2012-2013, compared to students in all other courses.
