BENEDICTINE UNIVERSITY
Course Outline MGT 150 STATISTICS I Fall, 2011
Text: Elementary Statistics, 11th edition, Mario F. Triola, Pearson/Addison-Wesley, 2010.
ISBN: 978-0-321-50024-3
TI-83 or TI-84 calculator also required.
Course Prerequisites: MATH 105 (Finite Math I) or MATH 110 (College Algebra)
Instructor: Jeffrey M. Madura, 160 Scholl HallOffice Hours: Announced in class or see web page at
B.A., University of Notre Dame
M.B.A., Northwestern Universitye-mail:
C.P.A., State of Illinois
Course Description: This is a course in introductory statistics. The orientation is toward applications and problemsolving, not mathematical theory. The instructor intends that students gain an appreciation for the usefulness of statistical methods in analyzing data commonly encountered in business and the social and natural sciences. The course is a framework within which students may learn the subject matter. This framework consists of a program of study, opportunity for questions/discussion, explanation, and evaluative activities (quizzes). The major topics are:
Descriptive Statistics
Probability and Probability Distributions
Inferential Statistics: Estimation and Hypothesis Testing
The course addresses the following College of Business Program Objectives:
Students in this program will receive a thorough grounding in: Mathematics and Statistics.
Your student evaluation of this course will be completed online using the IDEA system. This course emphasizes the following IDEA objectives:
Learning fundamental principles, generalizations, or theories.
Learning to apply course material to improve thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making.
Developing specific skills, competencies and points of view needed by professionals in the fields most closely
related to this course.
Quizzes and Grades: There are five quizzes, worth 100 points each.
Quiz 1Chapter 1, 2, 3Sep. 19, 20Grades are determined primarily by your
Quiz 2Chapter 4Oct. 12, 13percentage out of about 600 points.
Quiz 3Chapter 5Oct. 31, Nov. 1Class participation may also be a factor.
Quiz 4Chapter 6Nov. 21, 22
Grade requirements:A90%, B80%, C60%, D50%
Quiz 5Chapter 7-9*Final Exam week*certain sections
There will also be at least five 20-point assignments requiring the analysis of data using Excel spreadsheet files prepared by the instructor. It is the responsibility of any student who is unsure of the grading scale, course requirements, or anything else in this course outline to ask the instructor for clarification.
Use of the Text: Some may find the text difficult to read, so the instructor will provide, in class, all the information
needed to solve the relevant problems. The text may thus be used primarily for its descriptions, discussions,
andillustrations. The formulas used in class may differ from those in the text, due to differences in notation,
and other changes made in the interest of consistency, simplification, and understandability. Where class
usage differs from the text, class usage will control.
Calculators: Calculators will be required for the computational portion of each quiz. Bring your calculator to every class and verify each computation performed. The TI-83 is the standard for this course.
Recommended Exercises: Students should work as many as possible of the odd-numbered exercises in the Basic Skills set at the end of each section of the text. Proficiency gained from practice on these will help when similar problems appear on quizzes. Answers to odd-numbered exercises are at the back of the text.
Assignments: Assignments must be turned in during class on the day they are due. Assignments turned in after this time but before the assignment is handed back may receive one-half credit. Assignments turned in after the hand-back can no longer be accepted for credit.
Attendance: Attendance will be taken occasionally and randomly. Frequent absences will be noticed, and they will have an adverse impact on quiz performance and your final grade. Two or more absences on days when quizzes are handed back will lower your grade by one letter grade.
Missed Quizzes: Make-up quizzes will be given only if a quiz was missed for a good and documented reason. If a
make-up is given. The quiz score will be reduced 20% in an effort to maintain some degree of fairness
to those who took the quiz at the proper time.
Use of Class Time: Come to class prepared to discuss the material assigned, and to contribute to the solution of the assigned problems.
Special Needs: If you have a documented learning, psychological, or physical disability, you may be eligiblefor reasonable academic accommodations or services. To request accommodations or services, please contact Tina Sonderby in the Student Success Center, 012 Krasa Student Center, 630-829-6512. All students are expected to fulfill essential course requirements. The University will not waive any essential skill or requirement of a course or degree program.
Academic Honesty Policy: The search for truth and the dissemination of knowledge are the central mission of a university. Benedictine University pursues these missions in an environment guided by our Roman Catholic tradition and our Benedictine heritage. Integrity and honesty are therefore expected of all members of the community, including students, faculty members, administration, and staff. Actions such as cheating, plagiarism, collusion, fabrication, forgery, falsification, destructions, multiple submission, solicitation, and misrepresentation, are violations of these expectations and constitute unacceptable behavior in the University community. The penalties for such actions can range from a private verbal warning, all the way to expulsion from the University. The University’s Academic Honesty Policy is available at and students are expected to read it.
In this course, academic honesty is expected of all class participants, myself included. If your name is on the work submitted, it is expected that you alone did the work. For example, in terms of quizzes, this means that copying from another paper, unauthorized collaboration of any sort, or the use of “cribs” of any kind is a breach of academic honesty. The penalties for a breach of academic honesty in this course are (1) a zero for the assignment or quiz for the first offense, and (2) an “F” for the course for a subsequent offense by the same person(s).
Electronic Devices Policy: One aspect of being a member of a community of scholars is to show respect for others by the way you behave. One way of showing respect for others in the educational community is to do your part to create or maintain an environment that is conducive to learning. That being said, allowing your cell phone to ring in class is completely inappropriate because it distracts your classmates and thus degrades their overall classroom experience. For the sake of your classmates, you are expected to turn off your cell phone or set it to mute/silence before you enter class. If you use your cell phone or any other electronic device in any manner during a quiz, you will receive a zero for that test or quiz. Using the TI-83/84 calculator is permitted.
Feel free to see me if there is anything else of concern to you. Your comments about this course or any course are always welcome and appreciated. The student is responsible for the information in the syllabus and should ask for clarification for anything in the syllabus about which they are unsure.
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.
1.WHY SHOULD A STUDENT WANT TO TAKE THIS COURSE?
You are what you know. You are what you can do.
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. Socalled "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 well-reasoned 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 extremely 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.
It may be significant that the highest grade in a recent MBA class in statistics was earned by a philosophy major who did not have single math course at the college level. When asked about this, the student 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 are 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).