The Real Data

You want to know who had the real data in each group? Here it is:

Group 1 on Program Satisfaction: Max
Group 2 on Informed Citizens: Alicia
Group 3 on Social Networking: Sean
Group 4 on Chocolate & Learning: Cathy
Group 5 on Vacationing with Kids: Browning

All the other data sets were slightly, moderately, or hugely changed from the original data set.

Report 3 Feedback and Grading

I've finished going over all of the third reports. Overall the class did an excellent job! Congratulations to all of you for a job well done.

I will be sending individualized feedback to each person via email today. The feedback will include Raylene's spreadsheet rubric scoring, my written report rubric scoring (with very short notes), and my markup of your paper. In some cases there's no markup at all, in other cases very little markup.

Grades are not due until early January. With the grading of reports done, you now know 50% of your grade. The other 50 points of your grade will come from your timely submittals of the problem sets (16 points), providing a question and comment at the least for each knowledge dig (16 points), and attendance at the class sessions (18 points). Thankfully Google Docs and the Disqus commenting system will make it easy for me to look up each person's submittals quite easily. And, realistically, you should already know if you submitted problem sets, participated in the discussions, and attended class. I just need to do the clerical work of looking up this info for each person.

Next week I need to be providing feedback for my Multimedia Learning class. Grades might be submitted for Applied Statistics before the January deadline, but likely not much before.

I hope all of you have a great holiday break!

Getting Started on a Dissertation

This is a re-post of an entry at the L&I department website.

Dr. Burns has written a wonderful small document for students (especially those in the first through third years) about how to get started on a dissertation. Yep, you read correctly. Dr. "Bob" suggests getting started in an informal way as early as your first year and the summer after your first year.

This is "must read" information, and sage advice, for anyone who wants to graduate in a timely manner and do so in a relative stress-free manner. Beyond timeliness and reduced stress levels, Dr. Bob's approach will result in the most important thing: a much better final dissertation product. So download this wonderful PDF and read it over the holiday season. You'll be glad you did. Best of all, it's a free gift from us to you.

how-do-I-get-started pdf download

Report 2 Model Paper

I know this is a wee bit late, but it still may help some of you. I'm posting an example of a model paper done for Report 2. As with the first model paper, this report is not perfect and there were others who also wrote great reports. However, for some of you this may be a helpful guide about how to improve your own written research communication. The cover page has been removed to protect the identify of this second (and different) author of a model report.

model report 2 download

Report 3 Structure

I'm posting the Report 3 Structure document I passed out and discussed at our last class. This document provides key hints for how to structure your last report—with special attention given to where you'll add key bits of text to accommodate your correlational analyses. This affects the Research Questions, Results, and Discussion sections mainly. In total, addressing correlation probably adds about three paragraphs to your final report.

report 3 structure download

Final Dig and Problem Set

The final knowledge dig and problem set are ready! See sidebar for direct links to each assignment. Problem Set 9 has 5 questions. You only need to complete questions 1 through 3 for the final submission. I encourage all of you to try questions 4 and 5 before our last class. We'll go over all of these questions, however, at our last class session.

s_pooled Revisited

Many of your spreadsheets are in great shape, but where some people have the most problems is calculating s_pooled. I think this is mainly because it is the longest formula and the most complicated to double-check because it uses so many parentheses. As an optional download I'm providing a big one page handout, with color coding, showing two different ways you could calculate s_pooled in your spreadsheets. I hope this helps some of you. For others, this is another reference that may make future spreadsheet work a wee bit easier.

s_pooled revisited pdf download

Banner Image Survey

I've created a super short survey about banner images. Remember this website used to have a banner image? I removed it about two weeks ago so you could have the experience (pre/post) of seeing a website with banner image and without. Now let me know which is the better version for you! In turn this will help me tremendously as I design course websites for next semester. The survey needs to be completed before you leave class tonight.

banner image survey link

Report 2 Feedback Completed!

I have just sent out the last feedback packages to students this morning at 11. If you have not received an email from me with a feedback download link then I have an incorrect email address for you, my email is in your spam or junk folder, or something else weird happened. Put differently, contact me immediately about getting your feedback sent out again if you haven't received anything.

The first round of feedback was sent out last Thursday, with groups of feedback also sent out at the end of the business day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. This morning I completed feedback on the final round of research reports.

Each feedback package contains Raylene's handy spreadsheet rubric and score for your spreadsheet work, my written report rubric and markup of your written document, and an MP3 audio file where I talk through the areas of your report that need corrections or some additional improvement. I hope all of this is useful to each of you.

On Saturday we'll discuss what Report 3 will look like. Overall there will be relatively minor additions to the research questions section, to the results section, and (based on the results) possibly to the discussion section. These additions will all address an additional analysis using correlation.

Report 2 Feedback

I have started sending out feedback on your written reports and spreadsheets. Four feedback packages were sent out Friday, and another four sent today at noon. I'll be sending out a few feedback pages every day up through our next class session.

These are the people who have been sent feedback so far: Alicia, Cathy, Diana, Jennesis, Kathleen, Max, Nasa, and Toby. If one of you did not receive my email and the download link then please contact me as soon as possible about getting the feedback resent to you.

Cool Graphing Software

A new product was launched this fall named OmniGraphSketcher. It's a great Mac-only product for creating graphs. While it will do all sorts of graphs, one of the things it does especially well it how it displays correlation and regression information. I'll demo this in class.

There's no need to buy this software, and products like MS Excel offer very decent graphic capabilities also. But OmniGraphSketcher has a guiding vision for its development that seems focused on the right kinds of things. The programmer for this product, Robin, recently wrote:

The first part of the vision has to do with quantitative ideas. Quantitative means that scale is relevant. It means it’s valid to say that one thing is twice as big, far, tall, fast, costly, or experienced as another. Quantitative ideas are central to scientific disciplines and an important part of most business and policy issues. Thinking quantitatively allows us to understand and predict how different parts of the world relate to each other in a precise manner. How will higher taxes affect the local economy? How will this ratio of chemicals change the battery’s charging time? How does this bridge react to increasingly larger loads?

I emphasize ideas because quantitative knowledge is not limited to what traditional software tools have focused on: numerical data and equations. Sometimes knowledge is less specific. For example, you might just have a rough idea of how different price points affect the number of sales. Or you might know how a new material behaves at room temperature but have only an intuition about what happens above 100 degrees. These quantitative ideas could be a precursor to a more precise theory, or they could be as precise as they need to be, given the messiness of the real world.

The second part of the vision is communicating those ideas visually. That’s because often, the best way to explain a quantitative idea is through a picture. This is true whether you have data, equations, or imprecise quantitative notions. Would you rather have a table with 240 numbers, or a visual plot of that data?

To read the full post (which is definitely worth a quick read) just use the link below. If you are a Mac-user and are interested in this software, you can buy it at the academic price of $19.95.

omnigraphsketcher: the vision

Staying on Top of Research

I've just posted a new blog entry over at my personal website about various software tools to help you keep on top of organizing research articles. I've included DevonThink Professional for Mac-users, but also present three options for Windows-users. If interested, check out this overview article:

staying-on-top-of-research article

You want graphics? We've got graphics!

Indexed_example, originally uploaded by Mathew Mitchell.

You want 'em, well they are coming soon! But in the meantime I thought some of you might appreciate the comic strip named Indexed. These comics are developed by Jessica Hagy. Above is an example of her work. Each day a new index card chart is posted. I thought many of you might relate to this one card particularly well.

Session 7 Live Audio

I'm posting the audio from our class today for the "sickies" who missed class (Andrew, Rhonda, and Cathy). If you were at class and you want to download, then you're also welcome. I'm posting the audio at the Session 7 t-test page, but also just below:

session 7 live audio download

Banner Image Removed

I'm trying an experiment. For some of you it may be easier to navigate the website if the banner image or header image is removed. I'd like to hear feedback about whether you prefer the banner image, or prefer the website as it is now (without banner image). After our next class I'll change back to a banner image showing if that's the preference of the class.

Saturday experiment

Today's class will employ a little experiment. Most of the class I'll have an EtherPad screen in front of us. This allows those in the class (and perhaps one or two who are sick at home) to engage in live comments and questions. I don't know how it will really work in practice but this is an easy tool to implement. I'll describe more in class.

For the time being you may want to check out this afternoon's interactive whiteboard brought to you by EtherPad (below). Please let me know if you have any problems accessing the EtherPad page link.

session 7 whiteboard link

Submitting Report 2

Reports need to be submitted by noon on Saturday November 7th. Please submit electronically using the Uploads page. You can upload both documents at the same time.

Remember that we need your report document in PDF format and your spreadsheet documents in their original format (Excel, Numbers, or whatever spreadsheet program you are using). All Mac-users can save their report as a PDF directly from the print dialog box in any application they are using. Many of the Windows-users will be able to save directly to PDF from within Word (if using the newest version). Some Windows-users may need to create their PDF using the wonderful and free conversion service provided at Zamzar.com.

Session 8 Materials Ready

All of the learning materials for Session 8 on correlation are ready to download. Make sure you can download these items before this upcoming Saturday class. If you experience problems, then let me know. I'll bring a USB flash drive that you can use to transfer the materials to your computer in class.

session 8 page link

Raylene the Statistics Coach

Although I've posted Raylene Potter's contact information a couple times earlier in the semester, some people are still asking about her contact info. So, to make it super awesome easy I've added her contact info to the sidebar area on the right. Notice just under the due soon sidebar entries you now see an area titled statistics coach that gives both Raylene's email and phone information. I hope this is useful to some of you that haven't contacted Raylene before but now wish to use her services.

Example Paper

I am posting one example of a "model" paper. I use that word somewhat loosely since this paper is not perfect in a few ways. You'll easily notice the APA headings are off, for example. Despite the relatively minor flaws, the basic guts of this report demonstrates clear and complete research writing. (I should mention that several other students also had very good papers.)There is no need to download this paper, and the author shall remain anonymous, but it may be helpful for some of you.

report 1 example paper download

Big Caveat:You should view this paper as a general way to approach writing a paper. For example, in this paper the author provides some citations with references at the end. That was fine for the paper, but you should not "extract" from this example that you also need to have citations and references. As per anything in life you need to be a savvy consumer (i.e. savvy extractor of useful tips for your own writing).

Vancouver and e-Learn

I'm in Vancouver this week attending the e-Learn conference. On Friday morning I make a presentation on the use of "research alouds." Put differently, I won't be responding to emails this week.

I haven't been in Vancouver in over 20 years. It's always been a beautiful place, but I really like the makeup of the population here. This is probably the most international city I've been to (perhaps more so than London or Paris). There's a great vibe here. So between the conference and walking about the city, I'm enjoying an invigorating week. See you soon!

Session 6 Updates

I'm posting the Session 6 update materials very quickly as I'll be at the eLearn conference in Vancouver, Canada all this upcoming week. There are several handouts I used in class—some about the F-test and some about the Report projects you are doing. Please download and explore the handouts if you were not in class today.

Unfortunately someone borrowed my microphone this week and accidentally put the recording volume at the absolute lowest level! As a result, in order to get the volume up to a decent volume meant also introducing a lot of hiss into the final recording. If you missed the class this recording is better than nothing, but it's not up to the usual clean recording quality. Like the handouts, this audio can be downloaded at the Session 6 page about F-tests.

f-test page in the learn section

Session 7 Materials Ready

All of the learning materials for Session 7 on the t-test are ready to download. Make sure you can download these items before this upcoming Saturday class. If you experience problems, then let me know. I'll bring a USB flash drive that you can use to transfer the materials to your computer in class.

session 7 page link

Problem Set 7 Error

Problem Set 7 had some spacing problems (cosmetic, but irritating) and had one substantive problem. I've corrected it. If you re-download Problem Set 7 then you'll get the correct version (either below or in the original location at the F-test page).

Specifically the table for problems 2 through 9 should have 76 as the df Within and not "72" as given. You can either write in 76, or re-download.

problem set 7 download

Dissertation FAQs Form

I briefly told all of you about a Dissertation FAQs form that we had created for the L&I Department website. In the background we are working on making the Dissertations section of the website much stronger. One of the ways we want to do that is to include a Frequently Asked Questions page where we can give extended responses.

In theory all of this makes sense, but in practice we need to be able to respond to real questions that real students have. Put simply, we need you!

Thus I've added an extra assignment for you over the next two weeks: to submit at least one question via the Dissertation FAQS form we've provided. Of course, you can submit more than one question if you want. I've set up the form so that once you submit one question you'll then be recycled back to a blank Dissertation FAQ form—in this way it's easy to submit multiple questions, or just submit one and go back to surfing Amazon!

Whether you are a new student, or a wiley veteran, your questions will help us create a more useful webpage for future students. Many thanks in advance.

dissertation faq form link

Session 5 Updates

I have updated the Session 5 page on Inference to include the live audio plus the handouts from our class meeting on October 10th. If you want to download either of these, then just go to the Inference page in the Learn section.

Inference page in Learn section

Session 6 Materials Ready

All of the learning materials for Session 6 on the F-test are ready to download. Make sure you can download these items before this upcoming Saturday class. If you experience problems, then let me know. I'll bring a USB flash drive that you can use to transfer the materials to your computer in class.

session 6 page link

Sorting & Multiple Sheets in Excel

A few people have asked questions about sorting in Excel and also how to handle the creation of multiple sheets. I've uploaded a short 5 minute video that explains both of these procedures—just go to the Reports section to view the video. I hope this is helpful to some of you.

Reports section link

Problem Set 6 Issue

I was recently alerted to a "problem" with the Problem Set 6 submittal form. If you have not submitted your answers yet, then no problem! However, for the nine of you that have already submitted you can do one of two things:

Option 1: Resubmit you answers which will now allow you to include your name.

Option 2: Send me an email telling me the day and approximate time you posted. This can be helpful as I do have info on the exact time and day every submission was made.

Report Data Ready

The survey data you'll be analyzing for your reports is ready to download. Notice that there is now a new Reports section and that there is a old section (Surveys) missing. If you click on the Reports tab you'll find sub-headers. One of those subheaders is the Surveys section that has now be re-filed under reports.

Much more important to each one of you, however, is that you can go to your group's page. I've labelled groups as 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The main Reports page tells you who is in each group. Next go to that respective group page (you'll see the sub-header tabs just under the banner image) and you'll find links to download the data for each of your four members.

Please keep in mind that while the data sets for a group are similar, only one person has the actual "true" data set.

You are free to talk to people within, or outside, of your group. However, talking to other people should be in the form of discussing ideas, getting clearer about statistical concepts, or getting clearer about how to use a spreadsheet. Under no circumstances should these other people be doing the analysis or the interpretation of the data for you.

Session 4 Updates

I have updated the Session 4 page on ANOVA to include the live audio plus the handouts from our class meeting on September 26th. If you want to download either of these, then just go to the ANOVA page in the Learn section.

ANOVA page in Learn section link

Session 5 Materials Ready

All of the learning materials for Session 5 on Inference are ready to download. Make sure you can download these items before this upcoming Saturday class. If you experience problems, then let me know. I'll bring a USB flash drive that you can use to transfer the materials to your computer in class.

session 5 page link

Spreadsheet Form Page

About 25% of you use the latest version of MS Office. In this latest version Word documents are save as DOCX files instead of DOC, and Excel documents are saved as XLSX files instead of XLS. Those 25% of you also know that you have not been able to successfully send me your work using the Spreadsheet form page.

I thought I had fixed all of that about two weeks ago and that this continued problem was something we'd have to live with. Today I discovered I made a really silly mistake. And, of course, now it's been corrected! So starting today onwards those of you using XLSX files made from the newest version of Excel will be able to send me your work from the Spreadsheet form page.

DevSq is the Word

Problem Set 5, originally uploaded by Mathew Mitchell.

Several of you have been posting questions about small rounding off errors. There are a few ways to handle this including: (1) willing to live with small rounding off errors when hand calculating, (2) using Raylene's super-smooth calculation trick (email/phone her), or (3) using your new found spreadsheet skills.

In the end, the real direction you want to go is to become comfortable enough with spreadsheets that you use them for all your basic calculation needs. (The notable exception is that you'll want to use dedicated statistical analysis software for big and complicated analyses.)

1. Spreadsheet Setup
You can easily calculate all of the homework Problem Set 5 answers using your current spreadsheet skills. However, I'm going to make it even easier! First, set up your spreadsheet for the calculations. You should have something like what you see at the top of this post. Note that I've filled in some cells, but left others empty for you to figure out. (All the shown calculations you've already calculated in previous problem sets.)

2. New Spreadsheet Command
The new spreadsheet command that makes life easier for you: DEVSQ. This is a command to figure out the Sum of Squares (or deviations squared) for a specified array of numbers. With this command you do not need to create Deviation and Deviation Squared columns.

Notice that you have three possible DEVSQ commands you'd want to use with the data presented above: SS for the female group, SS for the male group, and SS for the total sample.

3. Calculate
All that is left is to do the calculations. SS Total is very simple since it treats all the data as belonging to one group. SS Within is also straightforward since it's the same thing as adding up the SS for each of your groups. So the one place where you'll really be practicing your formula-creation-chops is figuring out SS Between. That said the formula for this is much simpler than the one used for s_pooled. Finally, eta^2 is easy to calculate once you have SS Between.

4. Spreadsheet Concepts Revisited
There's a conceptual difference between what you do by hand, and how a spreadsheet operates. When you round off then you end up using those rounded-off-numbers in subsequent calculations. In this way it's easy for hand calculations (even if done correctly) to vary a small amount from the actual correct answer. (Of course if your calculations vary a large amount then something went askew!) However, spreadsheets work differently. In essence, spreadsheets always use the full number in all calculations. However, with a spreadsheet you can choose to have only part of the full number (e.g. two decimal places) displayed on the screen. So with spreadsheets you get the best of both worlds: all calculations done with the full number, but your eyes only need to look at the nicely formatted two-decimal-place rounded off number.

Surveys Open

The five group surveys are now open to be completed. You need to complete all 5 by September 24th at midnight.

It's probably easiest to answer all 5 at the same time. There will be some repetitious questions, but the data ends up going to different groups so please be understanding.

I have erased all submittals posted before today. There have been various small tweaks made to the surveys and they simply weren't ready for real submittals until this morning.

I have linked the five surveys. That means when you successfully complete Survey 1 you'll be taken to Survey 2 and so on. After completing Survey 5 you'll be taken to a general confirmation notice page. In total you can probably respond to all 5 surveys in less than 5 minutes. What a deal!

Please be honest when you are responding. I won't know the names of individual respondents, but I will have running counts of how many people from a few different courses have responded.

survey one link

Class List

I have created a class list form. To fill out the form use the link below. To see the results of the form, click on the brand new class list subpage link just above.

class list form link

Due Soon Assignments

There are lots of small assignments to complete before our next class. Let me briefly go over each type in turn.

Class List
I've posted a form for each student to complete so we can create a class list on the website. This will take you less than a minute. Please complete by this Friday.

Spreadsheet
Each person needs to submit their spreadsheet by September 22nd. This version of the spreadsheet needs to include your Cohen's d calculations.

Dig and Problem Set
Per usual Knowledge Dig 4 comments/questions and Problem Set 5 are due by midnight of the Wednesday just before the next teaching weekend (Sept 23).

Group Surveys
I've received surveys from 4 out of the 5 groups. I've also sent out clarification questions to a couple of groups. Once all the surveys are submitted and my questions resolved, then they will be posted to the website and opened for submittals. Each of you will need to complete each survey (even if you were in the creation group). However, each survey should be very easy and quick to complete. I hope to have all of this posted by Wednesday.

Session 3 Update

I have posted the live audio recording from yesterday's class at the Effect Size learning page.

effect size page link

How Google Saved a School

I had this posted at the Home page last week, but I'm cleaning up things and reposting here. Some of you may not have seen this short video clip yet. Very little to do with statistics, but quite interesting and they touch on the role Google Docs can play within a public school environment.

Effect Size Calculations Galore

I've just posted a new download package titled Effect Size Revisited. It includes answers to your problem set questions and much more. You don't need to download right now, but if you want to find out more head on over to the Session 3 learning page.

effect size learning page link

Laptops & Headphones

Recently someone asked if they should bring their laptop and headphones to every class meeting. The realistic answer is: probably.

Here's the bottom line: At almost every class session we'll view a spreadsheet construction movie and you'll be provided some time to work on your own spreadsheets. Some of you may want to review part of the movie on your own during this time—and thus headphones are needed. Most of you will want to do spreadsheet construction work on your own computer—and thus a laptop is needed.

All that said, if you want to buddy up with someone in class so you share a laptop and headphones then that's fine. It will mean you'll need to add to your own spreadsheet later at home, but that's not a real problem and in fact might be beneficial for learning the material well.

Put differently, if you want to work with at stats buddy then only one of you need to bring a laptop/headphones combo. If you'd prefer to work on your own then, well, bring your own gear.

Session 4 Materials Ready

All of the learning materials for Session 4 on ANOVA (or Analysis of Variance) are ready to download. No new resources have been posted, but the page itself has been updated so it's clearer which items are required versus those that are optional. Make sure you can download these items before this upcoming Saturday class. If you experience problems, then let me know. I'll bring a USB flash drive that you can use to transfer the materials to your computer in class.

session 4 page link

Effect Size Movie Draft

I'm working on creating a movie about calculation effect size using Cohen's d. If you are interested you can download the last 9 minutes (of the 21 minute movie) below. This is a draft version so I may tweak some settings. The final version will contain 3 case studies plus supplementary handouts (such as the PDF of the article this movie refers to). At any rate, some of you may benefit from seeing this preview of the upcoming movie that we'll all view together in class.

effect size partial movie download

Home Page Updates

There have been two recent updates to the Home page. So, if you automatically come to this News page first, then let me tell you why you may want to check out the Home page:

PBS Movie
I've added a 7 minute movie made by Frontlines at PBS titled, "How Google Saved a School." Important for learning statistics? No. Perhaps useful to see how one NYC school is starting to incorporate technology? Yes. And their choice of software is Google Docs, the same suite of software I use for creating surveys and collecting data in this class.

Disqus Personalized
Some of you have still not personalized your Disqus account with an intuitive display name and an avatar. Instead of a movie I've posted a pop-up image gallery that shows you how to do these changes in 5 easy steps. Check it out!

Statistics Consulting

There are two sources of statistics consulting help for this course. First, as all of you are aware, Raylene Potter serves as the official course statistics consultant. Most of you met her through the Technology Workshops given over the first two teaching weekends. Raylene previously wrote:

My planned onsite office hours will be from 5:15 - 6:15 pm, every teaching weekend Saturday, in your Applied Stats classroom. I also have scheduled phone-in or online office hours from 5:00 - 7:00 pm every Friday. Please feel free to call me or email me at any time. I will try to respond to messages within a reasonable timeframe.

My cell phone is: (831) 334 - 7438

The best email address to use is: raylenepotter@hotmail.com

Second, in addition to Raylene, if you live near USF then you may want to take advantage of our wonderful Learning & Writing Center. They offer specific help for graduate students in APA-style writing and statistics.

To learn more about their services you can download an eight minute interview conducted with Dr. Charlene Lobo-Soriano, Director of the Learning and Writing Center. Charlene addresses three key issues: (1) what services the Learning and Writing Center offers doctoral students, (2) what kinds of support it does not provide, and (3) what are the specific steps students need to take in order to set up either a writing or math consultation at the Center.

lobo-soriano interview download

You can visit the USF Learning & Writing Center webpage for more details. Alternatively you can phone the Center directly at: (415) 422-6713. The Center is located in Cowell Hall 227. No appointments can be made by leaving a phone message: instead you need to talk to a live person. Statistics consultations can be arranged on weekends with an advance appointment. You can also arrange statistics tutorials for other times also.

New Spreadsheets Tab

I've just created a new tab (look at top of page) titled Spreadsheets. This is a very easy way for you to send me any spreadsheet work you'd like me to take a look at. Some of you won't need this at all, some of you may work with Raylene on your spreadsheet work, but for some of you this will be a nice convenient way to send your work to me and then get feedback.

spreadsheets page link

Session 2 on Variation

There are some follow-up items from our class yesterday. First, I have posted the audio presentation from yesterday's class that totals about 2 hours. This is an optional download. Second, I also posted the five group draft surveys developed yesterday. Again, this is an optional download. You can download both of these resources at the Variation Session 2 webpage.

Today I've also activated the Problem Set 3 and 4 answer pages. You have until September 9th to complete both. In addition, the Knowledge Dig 3 assignment has also been activated, and again you have until September 9th to complete. Make sure to read the instructions for Dig 3 as this is a more detailed conversation since we now have 10 days instead of 5 days to discuss issues surround effect size.

Finally, I'll post explicit instructions for how groups can get me their final versions of their surveys later this week (Wed or Thurs). Not all groups need to have "final" surveys done before next class, but when I have complete surveys then I will make sure to post them and invite you (and some other students in other classes) to complete them. However, we should collect complete data for all 5 surveys before our September 26th class.

Session 3 Materials Ready

All of the learning materials for Session 3 on Effect Size are ready to be downloaded. No new resources have been posted, but the page itself has been updated so it's clearer which items are required versus those that are optional. Make sure you can download these items before this upcoming Saturday class. If you experience problems, then let me know. I'll bring a USB flash drive that you can use to transfer the materials to your computer in class.

session 3 page link

Reminders & Updates

I'm posting some quick updates and reminders for all of you.

Personalizing your Disqus account. Many of you haven't personalized your Disqus account yet with a suitable short display name and image avatar. Please make sure to do this before Saturday. Discus has just changed how you do these kinds of things as of this morning. The changes are for the better, but everything looks a bit different at the Disqus site. In turn I've created a short 4.5 minute movie to show you how to personalize your account. The movie is posted at the Home page in both a downloadable and pop-up movie formats.

Live Audio from Session 1. I'll only record audio from a class if I know in advance that someone will be missing the session. That said, there may be some of you who would like to have a copy of the live audio from Session 1. Not a problem! Just head over to the Overview page within the Learn section to download this audio MP3 file.

Laptops and Headphones. This is a reminder that I want everyone to bring in their laptop plus a set of headphones/earplugs to our upcoming Saturday class. If you don't have any headphones then please email me so I can bring some in for you.

Technology Survey. The deadline for submitting this survey was last night. Everyone completed the assignment before the deadline. Many thanks! (Tonight is the deadline for the "My Exciting Summer" assignment.)

New Commenting System

After investigating the very recent changes to the service I was using for hosting this website's comments, I found their new service to be . . . terrible. Seven days ago the company I was using completely changed their commenting features. Typically this involves refining or expanding features (which would have been fine), but this particular company decided to get rid of almost all of their good features and replace them with marketing hype. So after several hours of thought and work, I've redone this website to work with a new commenting service named Disqus (pronounced discuss).

As of today the Disqus page replaces the old "Discuss" page. Most of you have not added any comments yet, but for those of you that have, you'll need to resubmit. If you made a longish comment then just email me and I can send you the full content of your previous comments.

By far the best way to submit a comment is to first create a Disqus profile. This is very easy as you'll only have two options when adding a comment for the first time: comment as a guest or comment via a Disqus profile. To create a profile click on the DProfile link (see screenshot below).

When you click on the DProfile link up will pop a registration window! You don't even need to go to another website. Here's what it looks like:


The advantage of using a Disqus profile is that it will subsequently be easy to track the various comments of any given person in the class.

I'll briefly discuss the positive features of Disqus at our first class, but amongst those key features is the ability to sort comments, subscribe by email to the complete commenting thread (a big feature), to submit new comments via email, the ability to edit and remove comments, and more. Check it all out at:

disqus section link

Raylene Potter: Statistics Coach

The entry below is from Raylene Potter:

My name is Raylene Potter and I will be your Graduate Assistant for Applied Statistics this fall. I am a second-year student in the Learning and Instruction program. I have been very impressed with the doctoral program at USF, and would like to take this opportunity to welcome you all to the program!

One of my true passions is teaching statistics. I have a master’s degree in statistics and currently teach math and stats at Hartnell and Gavilan colleges. For twenty years, I worked as a statistical programmer/analyst in the educational research division of McGraw-Hill. Approximately two years ago, I decided to resign from the corporate day job, and expanded various adjunct positions into full-time teaching.

My purpose as a Graduate Assistant is to provide you with support, wherever it is needed. No question is too basic…though the more complicated questions I may refer to Dr. Mitchell!

My planned onsite office hours will be from 5:15 - 6:15 pm, every teaching weekend Saturday, in your Applied Stats classroom. I also have scheduled phone-in or online office hours from 5:00 - 7:00 pm every Friday. Please feel free to call me or email me at any time. I will try to respond to messages within a reasonable timeframe.

My cell phone is: (831) 334 - 7438

The best email address to use is: raylenepotter@hotmail.com

I look forward to working with you this semester. I know that for many of you, the idea of a doctoral level applied stats class is dreadful. Please let me help- I truly love statistics and am very willing to be at your service.

Looking forward to a great semester!

Raylene

Syllabus Updates

I sent out an email to students earlier this week. As the days roll on I'm finding more and more small typos and glitches in the syllabus itself. I may find more! None of these awkwardnesses change the content of the syllabus, but nonetheless are blemishes I need to eliminate. If you download the syllabus today, it will be slightly different from three days ago. Put differently, the current syllabus should be treated as a pre-release version. I will always post new updates to the syllabus as needed to the website. It's not important that you check for these, and all the key assignments, etc. are exactly the same. I will bring the final version of the syllabus to our first class meeting.

Welcome

Welcome to Applied Statistics! This is the Fall 2009 semester version of the course. Our first live meeting will be on Saturday, August 22 @ 2:30 p.m. I've sent out an email to all pre-registered students in the course so you can get a bit of a head start if you want. I'm doing this because the beginning of our semester is a bit hectic with teaching weekends on both August 22 and August 29. Your first task is to read all of the news entries below this one to get some key information about the course.

Getting Started

You have a variety of learning materials to download for Sessions 1 and 2. All of the Session 1 print materials I will distribute in class. However it's useful to also download the electronic versions of the documents (such as the course syllabus).

For Session 2 you'll have a collection of learning materials including an audiobook, a QuickTime movie, and more.

Notice that you can access the learning materials for a class session by going to the Learn section (see top tabs) then selecting the appropriate class (see options just under the banner image). Alternatively use the Sidebar and scroll down a wee bit until you see the area labelled Learning Materials. This provides you with direct links to all of the class session learning materials.

Five Assignments

The beginning of this particular semester is quite difficult since class 1 and class 2 are only one week apart. I have made some accommodations for this, but nonetheless there are still a number of things that need to be accomplished in this first week. Beyond using the learning materials for Session 1 (Overview) and Session 2 (Variation), you have five assignments to complete:

Technology Survey
This will take you less than 5 minutes. You can easily complete it during your first weekend. There's nothing you need to learn before you take this survey.

My Exciting Summer
This is a very simple assignment to make sure all of you know how to use the commenting system built into this course's website. Again, this assignment could easily take you less than 10 minutes to complete.

Knowledge Dig 2
This assignment can't be done until after you've used the learning materials on variation. It's where you need to post at least one comment or question about the content in the learning materials.

Problem Set 1
Once you've done this homework problem set, this is where you'll submit your answers.

Problem Set 2
Once you've done this homework problem set, this is where you'll submit your answers.

Please note that all of the assignments for an upcoming class will always be posted at the top of the Sidebar (see the far right top of the screen under the banner image). In this area you'll see when each assignment is due and you'll be provided with a link that takes you directly to the relevant page.

Mobile Devices

This website is iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android enabled. This means the website can identify whether you are using a web browser or if you are using one of the 3 mobile devices listed above. If you are using an iPhone/Touch/Android then you'll see a version of the website that contains the same information but has been formatted to read much more easily, and load much more quickly, on those devices.

The menu options work a bit differently on the mobile devices to optimize space. But you will be able to navigate everything, see text at a good and easy reading size, plus more.

The mobile device version of this website is not good for downloading materials, and probably not good (though possible) for submitting your knowledge dig comments. But the mobile device version of the website can be great for keeping up to date with new posts in the News section or new comments in either the News or Office sections. So if you have one of the devices listed above, insert this course's web address, bookmark it in your device, and use as best fits your learning needs.