Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Stat 2300, Fall 2004

Business Statistics - International Program

Syllabus
USU Catalog Description

QL 2300. Descriptive and inferential statistics, probability, sampling, estimation, tests of hypotheses, linear regression and correlation, chi-square tests, analysis of variance, and multiple regression. Prerequisite: Math 1050. (4 Cr - F, Sp, Su)

Relation to Stat 2000

Due to the previously offered statistics courses for the International Program, it is assumed that students have taken an Introductory Statistics course such as Stat 2000 before. Stat 2300 this semester will not cover all topics from the USU Catalog Description but only address those topics that have not been discussed in Stat 2000. If you have not taken Stat 2000 (or a similar course) before, please contact your local instructor and USU instructor immediately.

USU Instructor

Dr. Jürgen Symanzik
Assistant Professor
Utah State University
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
3900 Old Main Hill
Logan, Utah 84322-3900
USA
e-mail: symanzik@math.usu.edu

Local Instructor

Joseph, Kim Keung Ho
Institute of Advanced Learning
Tsim Sha Tsui Center
Hong Kong
e-mail: sjho@i-cable.com

Textbook

We will use the electronic textbook CyberStats again. Please go to http://cyberk.com and register for course ID # 865 (Standard - Utah State University - Juergen Symanzik - Stat 2300 - International) at a cost of US-$ 33. This will give you access to CyberStats for one semester. It is your responsibility to pay the CyberStats publisher directly. If you do not submit your payment, your access to the electronic textbook will be denied after the initial trial period.

There exists an optional print companion to CyberStats at an additional cost. In case you would like to obtain the printed version of the course material, please contact the CyberStats publisher directly. It may be beneficial if a small group of students jointly orders several copies of the print companion.

Please check the message board of CyberStats frequently for announcements, discussions, etc.

Lessons / Homework Assignments

CyberStats allows you to work at your own speed, at times most convenient to you. There is a weekly meeting, administered by the local instructor. The confirmed times for the course are as follow: Your local instructor will inform you when a meeting has to be rescheduled due to local holidays or for other reasons.

The meeting location for the course is:
The weekly meetings are no regular lectures. Instead, your local instructor will help with technical problems, summarize answers to frequently asked questions, and emphasize important points of the course material assigned for reading each week.

CyberStats consists of 7 main units and more than 40 subunits: We will study the following subunits, following a schedule that addresses 2 subunits (plus additional material) each week (i.e., 17 subunits overall): You should work independently on these subunits, reading the main parts, checking your progress via the self-assessment tests, and work on as many of the homework assignments as possible. You are always allowed to work ahead, but you should not fall behind this schedule.

For each CyberStats subunit, the assigned set of homework assignments has been listed. You have to submit your answers electronically via CyberStats by the end of a week. This means, answers to the exercises of subunits A-8 and B-9 are due on Sun 9/5/04, 23:59 (11:59pm)

There will be 10 sets of homework assignments, each worth 15 points. Your local instructor will randomly select a subset of questions and grade these in detail. For those questions not selected, you will get credit based on whether you have done/not done a question (independenly from correctness).

Exams

There is one midterm exam only. The midterm is worth 450 points. There is no final exam.

The midterm is open-book, open-notes, open-computer (i.e., you have full access to CyberStats and all its tools, calculators, etc.). The midterm should be completed in 120 min (2 hours). You are expected to use the CyberStats tools, calculators, etc. efficiently. If you rarely looked at the CyberStats tools and only read the main text, you will most likely fail the exam.

The midterm will be given in or after week 10 (beginning Mo 11/1/04) and will cover the following 17 subunits: A-8, B-9, C-4, D-2, A-9, B-8, B-10, B-14, C-5, C-9, D-3, D-4, E-1, E-2, E-3, F-1, G-1. The two Non-CyberStats topics will not be examined in the midterm. Your local instructor will inform you on exact dates, times, and rooms of the midterm during the semester.

Exam questions will be at the same difficulty level as the exercises from the homework assignments. In fact, some exam questions will be drawn from the remaining exercise sets. The midterm will consist of regular questions and a data part where you are given a real data set and are required to answer questions using the CyberStats tools. The midterm will be graded by your US instructor. Sample questions (with answers) will be provided later in the semester.

Group Project

You will have to work in a small group (3 to 5 students) on a group project. You will have to find a business/economics related data set on the Web (e.g., automobile sales, currency exchange rates, unemployment numbers), analyze (numerically, graphically, and via model building) the data with WebStat, prepare a 10 to 15 min presentation with PowerPoint, and prepare a short written report (5 to 10 pages).

The group project is worth 400 points: up to 200 points for the PowerPoint presentation (assessed by your local instructor) and up to 200 points for the written report (assessed by your US instructor). More details and an exact timeline will be provided later in the semester.

Grading Policy

Overall, there will be 1000 points: 150 for homework assignments, 450 for the midterm, and 400 for the project. To pass the course overall, you will need at least 150 points (33.3%) from the midterm. An approximate point/grade distribution is given below. Plus minus grades are not indicated.