Out-of-class projects are to be done as a teamwork in teams of 3 to 5 students. You have to pick any business/economics data that is freely available on an English language Web site that is of interest to you. You will have to thoroughly plan the study and analysis and weekly discuss your progress with Joseph, your local instructor. You will have to collect the data from a Web site and further process it for use in WebStat, analyze the data using appropriate statistical procedures, and discuss the results you obtained. After completing the study, you have to present your work to the other students in class and you have to write a thorough but concise report of your entire investigation.

The realization of the out-of-class project includes following stages:

Each team will consist of 3 to 5 students. Smaller teams are not desirable because of too much workload for each member. Similarly, larger teams (6 or more students) are not desirable because of possible unbalanced workload within the team. Individual work is not permitted. Individuals who are unable to find teammates will be assigned to the existing teams by your local instructor. You can also form teams across the Monday and Tuesday sections.

You should not spend too much time on finding a suitable business/economics related data set on an English language Web site (e.g., automobile sales, currency exchange rates, unemployment numbers) but you should make sure that this data set can be analyzed with methods from Stat 2300 and any other Stat course you have previously taken. Some part of your USU instructor’s reaction to your project will also inevitably reflect the originality of your topic, so choose it with some care.

Before conducting your study, you will need to e-mail a double spaced typed one-page description of what you plan to do with the data to your local instructor and obtain your local instructor’s approval (in the form of his signature on a printout of your statement). This signed statement should be scanned in and included (in electronic form) as the last page of your project report. If two or more teams plan to analyze data from the same Web site, your local instructor will randomly select one team that is allowed to work with this data while the other team(s) have to come up with a new topic. This means, no team will be allowed to use the same data as any other team.

It is actually up to you how you conduct the study, assign team members to particular tasks, determine the time schedule, meet with your team members or communicate with each other by e-mail. Good organization and collaboration are essential for the success of your project. Also, your time management ability and ability to meet deadlines are important components of your successful completion of the project. You should be aware that the processing of data from a Web site may take a considerable amount of time.

Once the data are processed for use in CyberStats, they should be analyzed using appropriate statistical methods. Data analysis consists of two main parts: exploratory data analysis (graphical and numerical presentation of the data, statistical summaries, ...) and formal statistical inference (parameter estimation, confidence intervals, statistical tests, regression and/or ANOVA models, ...). Your data analysis should be carried out using WebStat.

After conducting the study and obtaining results, make a through but concise, professional quality technical report of not more than 10 double spaced pages (including appendices). The report should include:

1. A title page giving the title of the project, names of the authors, and their e-mail addresses and CyberStats user IDs,
2. A summary of your study (an one page overview of your study and the most important results),
3. A table of contents for the whole report including appendices,
4. An 'Introduction' section: 1 to 2 pages that provide background information needed to understand the topic, description of the reasons of your study, your a priory beliefs (how you expected the study to turn out), and (optional) a brief review of literature related to the topic of your study (if available).
5. A 'Materials and Methods' section: a detailed description of the work done by the team: what you did and how you did it (in enough detail that your US instructor could replicate it if he wished, without having to ask you for more details). Following details must be included:

• the exact data source (URL)
• a description the variables
• a summary of the data/background, as available on the English language Web site
• a brief description of statistical analyses done.

6. A 'Results' section: results of your analyses, graphical and numerical summaries of the data, results of the statistical tests, final regression and/or ANOVA model, ...
7. A 'Discussion' section: interpretation of the results, comparison of your results with those of previous studies and/or your a priori beliefs, possible reasons for your findings, ...
8. A 'Conclusions' section: subject matter implications of your study, discussion of further questions raised by your study that might be investigated in subsequent studies.
9. A list of references. All references must be mentioned in the text of your report.
10. Appendices. WebStat graphics, results, screen dumps, etc.

The main body of the report should include only the end product of any statistical calculations presented in tables and graphs that are clearly explained in the accompanying text (example calculations should be included in the appendix so that your readers can see how your end products were produced). If you want to include complete WebStat printouts, they should be carefully annotated and included only in the appendices (small parts of the printouts may be integrated in the main text where appropriate). All tables, graphs, and appendices must be referred to explicitly in the main text (do not leave the reader guessing why a table, graph, or appendix material is included). Write the report for absolute clarity! Keep in mind that, in reality, the readers of your report will be experts in the field of business/economics, not necessarily trained statisticians, so do not overuse statistical jargon.

Your report should be computer-generated (use Microsoft Word, Word Perfect, Latex, or any other text processing package you are familiar with), with skillfully incorporated formulas, tables, and graphs. Hand-written parts of the report (including hand-written page numbers) are not acceptable. Also, hand-drawn figures should be avoided whenever possible (and must be scanned in and be included in electronic form in your report). All tables, graphs, and overviews must be numbered. All pages (including appendices) must also be numbered.

Your results have to be presented by one team member of your choice to the entire group of ALL students from the Mo/Tu session and your local instructor on

Your local instructor will assign the exact times for your presentation based on the number of teams. However, it is assumed that each presentation will last about 10 to 15 minutes with the possibility to ask 1 or 2 questions. Your local instructor will also grade the oral presentation and keep a copy of your PowerPoint slides. Team average scores for these presentations will be assigned according to the following scheme:

The completed written report and your PowerPoint presentation must be transformed to pdf format and then be e-mailed to Kenny at Advanced Learning (usu@in-learning.edu.hk) no later than

Your US instructor will grade the written report. Team average scores for these projects will be assigned according to the following scheme:

The maximum number of points for the oral presentation part of the out-of-class project is 200. The maximum number of points for the written part of the out-of-class project is 200. In the most likely case of well-balanced workload within the team, all team members will receive the same number of points and the same grade. However, in the case that several team members regularly report to the local instructor that one (or multiple) of the other team members do not contribute at all to the project, do not reply to e-mails, do not work on their assigned taks, etc., the points awarded to those team members will be less than those for the other team members. The grade you get on this project will account for 40% of your total course grade.

If any question arises while conducting your project, feel free to ask your local instructor or your US instructor whatever you are concerned about: selection of data, statistical analyses, presentation of the results, use of WebStat etc. However, as you are an expert for your topic, the interpretation of the results and the conclusions of your study will be based on your knowledge of the subject.