course syllabus - adams state university in alamosa, …€¦ ·  · 2014-12-21course syllabus...

SOC 311 – SOCIAL STATISTICS

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Course Syllabus

Instructor Information

Instructor: Laura Patterson, Ph.D. Email: laurapatterson@adams.edu

Course Delivery

Online, Semester-based

Credit Hours

4 Semester Hours

Course Prerequisites

SOC 201, Minimum Grade C- or T

AND BUS 120, Minimum Grade: C- or T

AND ONE of the following Math Courses:

MATH 104, MATH 106, MATH 120, MATH 150, MATH 155, or MATH 156: Minimum

Grade C- or T

Course Time Limits

This is a semester-based course. All course components must be completed within the semester for which you registered, as per the schedule included in this document. Although you may work ahead on course material, you will not be able to access material past each exam until the scheduled time for that exam has passed.

Course Materials

Textbooks can be purchased from the Adams State University Bookstore. To order textbooks or obtain information about book titles, you may go to exstudies.adams.edu and click on the "Undergraduate" or "Educators K-12" icon. Click on the "Bookstore" link. Click on the button that reads "Graduation, Books, Clothing & Merchandise". Click on "Books" in the green navigation bar. Select "DISTLEARN" from the department menu. (http://adams.edu/students/sub/bookstore/)

Use Section Number: 1691 to order books from Bookstore site. This should provide

the correct textbook information and ordering options.

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If you have questions, you can contact the Bookstore at 719-587-7981, email Loretta Martinez at lcmartin@adams.edu or send a mailed request to Adams State University Bookstore, 208 Edgemont Blvd., Suite 3140, Alamosa, CO 81101.

Required Textbook: Essentials of Social Statistics for a Diverse Society 7/E. Chava Frankfort-Nachmias and Anna Leon-Guerrero. ISBN: 9781483333540

Required Software: You must purchase a copy of SPSS software for this course. Go to the following website: http://www.onthehub.com/spss/ and select “buy now” under the “students” heading. Purchase the SPSS Base GradPack. You may select either a 6-month or one-year rental. Note: You will need this software for the Sociological Research Methods course (SOC 455) as well. You may wish to schedule accordingly so you only need to purchase this software once.

Catalog Description

This course presents a general overview of the statistical methods most commonly used in sociology and the social sciences. As a laboratory component, students will become proficient in SPSS, a computer program designed to aid statistical analysis. The skills learned in this course will enable the student to: read popular applications of statistics in the media with a critical eye; assess the use of statistics in professional sociological literature; and use statistical tools to answer sociological questions of interest.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

1. Compute and interpret basic statistics 2. Demonstrate proficiency in SPSS 3. Determine the correct statistical technique for various data sets 4. Use correlations and regressions to describe relationships between variables 5. Explain what a sampling distribution is 6. Test hypotheses about means, proportions, cross-tabulations and regression

coefficients. 7. Read and interpret statistical information in professional and scholarly

publications

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Content Outline

1. Variables and Frequency distributions 2. Univariate analysis: Mean, variance, standard deviation, and z scores 3. Hypothesis testing 4. Normal curve, sampling, and probability 5. Bivariate analysis: Cross-tabulations 6. Statistical significance 7. t tests 8. Correlation 9. Chi-Square 10. Analysis of Variance 11. Regression Analysis

Course Requirements

Grades in this course will be determined by your performance on three exams, weekly homework assignments and discussion posts, and a syllabus quiz. EXAMS You will take three exams in this course, roughly evenly spaced throughout the semester. These exams will test your knowledge on each of the three sections of the course: I: Introduction to Statistics, Central Tendency, and Variability II: The Normal Distribution, Sampling Distributions and Hypothesis Testing III: Chi-Square, ANOVA, Regression, and Correlation Exams are open-book, open-note, and there is no time limit for the completion of exams. Each exam will have two components: (1) a multiple-choice component, accessed through the “assessments” tab on our course webpage, and (2) a written component, which will be turned in on the “assignments” tab on our course webpage. Although there is no time limit for the completion of the multiple-choice component of the exam, you must finish the exam in one sitting; multiple attempts are not allowed. Grades for this component of the exam will be released once the due date for the exam has passed.

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For the written component of your exams, you MUST show all your work in order to receive credit for your answers (e.g. formulas used, calculations performed, drawing used to arrive at the answer, etc.) This component of your exam will be turned in on the “assignments” tab on our course webpage. You may turn it in in one of the following ways (listed below by increasing technological sophistication):

(1) Print the blank exam, complete it using a pencil, and then scan your document and save it as a pdf file.

(2) Complete the exam using a Word processing program. You must correctly format all your work (including formulas used, drawings used to arrive at your answers, etc.). Save the resulting file as a pdf, docx, or doc file.

Tip: Use “alt =” in Word to access formula editing! (3) Complete the exam using LaTeX or other mathematical typesetting software and

save the resulting file as a pdf.

Exams will be worth 100 points each (for the multiple-choice and written-components combined), and cumulatively will account for 75% of your grade in this course. HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS You will complete one homework assignment each week during the course that is not an exam week, for a total of 13 assignments. Each will consist of 4 questions from the textbook and will be worth 5 points. Approximately half of your assigned homework problems will require the use of SPSS statistical software. These homework assignments are a chance for you to practice course concepts, and the majority of your grade will be based on completeness, not correctness. This means you are not required to answer each question correctly in order to receive credit for the assignment. However, you must attempt each problem, showing all appropriate work (e.g. each formula you used, calculation you conducted, drawing you used to arrive at your answer, etc.) If you are lost and cannot decide where to begin on any given problem, you must write a short explanation of the difficulties you’re having approaching the problem, in lieu of showing the appropriate work. You will receive one point for thoroughly attempting each of the four problems. The remaining point will be awarded to students who complete all four problems correctly, for a total of five possible points on each assignment. Homework assignments will be worth 5 points each, and cumulatively will account for slightly over 16% of your grade in this course. As with the exams, homework assignments will be turned in on the “assignments” tab on our course webpage and may be submitted in any of the ways outlined for exam submission. Note: problems requiring the use of SPSS will be submitted as either Word of pdf files. Please watch the introductory video posted in the first course module

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for a demonstration of how to open a dataset in SPSS and how to save the resulting file as either a .pdf or .doc file. Videos will be made available immediately following the due date of each homework assignment (i.e. at midnight, Monday morning), showing you how to complete each problem. I will post a written answer key for each problem as well. Use these resources to check your work and ensure you’re keeping up with course material – and send me a message if there’s anything you don’t understand after viewing the step-by-step videos. DISCUSSION POSTS Each week homework problems are assigned, you will also be required to make at least two contributions to course discussions. You will see on the course webpage a separate discussion board for each homework problem assigned in the course. You may post twice in the same discussion or you may post in multiple discussion boards. These discussion boards are your chance to collaborate with other students on the homework assignments, and for those of you who enjoy working together, I encourage you to post frequently. Your two required contributions to these discussions may take any of the following three forms:

(1) You may post a question pertaining to that homework problem, asking other students in the course for help with a concept you’re having trouble understanding. Please detail the nature of your problem (e.g. what you’ve tried, the particular place where you’re getting “stuck” with the problem, a definition you’re unsure of, etc.). You will not receive credit for simply asking, “How do you do this problem?”

(2) You may post a response to another student’s question, attempting to help them

with the difficulty they described.

(3) You may post a “tip” on how to complete that homework problem. Please do not post a comprehensive how-to guide for the entire problem, but give one pointer or piece of information you feel would be helpful for someone having difficulty with that question.

o An example of an appropriate “tip” would be, “For #12, I calculated the proportion of adults who are unemployed by taking the number who reported they were out of work (84) and dividing by the total number of adults in the sample (1,200).”

o Another example of a tip for a less calculation-heavy problem might be, “An ordinal variable is a categorical variable whose categories are rank-ordered from lowest to highest.”

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Discussion posts are worth one point each. Completing at least two posts on each week where problems have been assigned will result in a maximum of 2 possible points. Discussion posts cumulatively account for 7% of your grade. These discussion forums are your chance to collaborate with other students – but as would be the case in a traditional classroom, please do not blindly accept their tips or advice! If you believe someone has provided incorrect information, post a response suggesting an alternative. I will not participate in course discussions until after the due date for the course assignment, when video and written answer keys for each problem have been posted. At that time, I will post responses to any student questions which are not adequately addressed in the keys provided. DISCUSSION ETIQUETTE

Please be kind to your fellow students. Discussion boards are a place for you to collaborate with each other on the homework assignments, and although I will not enforce strict policies on grammar, punctuation, etc., I expect you to be courteous to your classmates. A student who posts a comment that is disrespectful, insulting, or otherwise inappropriate will not receive credit for that week’s discussion. A repeat offense may result in the student being banned from the discussion board and losing the points associated with that course requirement. Note: You may NOT discuss exam questions in the course discussion boards until after the due dates for these assignments have passed. Any student doing so will be immediately banned from participating in future discussion and will lose the points associated with that course requirement.

SYLLABUS QUIZ AND INTRODUCTORY DISCUSSION

During the first week of the course, you will be required to complete two additional assignments:

1. Take a syllabus quiz (worth 7 points) 2. Post in an introduction in our “Welcome!” discussion board (worth 2 points).

These two extra assignments during the first week of the course cumulatively account for approximately 2% of your grade. OPTIONAL EXTRA CREDIT PROJECT

You will have the option of completing an extra credit project for this course, describing and analyzing the relationship between two variables provided in the GSS dataset. This project will be completed using SPSS statistical software, and will be due on the last day of the course, along with the final exam. Requirements for this project can be found in the “assignments” tab on our course webpage.

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The extra credit project will be worth a maximum of 20 points, meaning you have the opportunity to raise your grade by up to 5%! GRADING TIMELINE

All exams, homework assignments, and discussion posts will be graded within one week of their due date. If this is not possible, I will post an announcement on our course webpage explaining the reason for the delay and the anticipated date of completion. LATE ASSIGNMENTS

Late homework assignments and discussion posts will not be accepted under any circumstances. Please plan accordingly, and complete these assignments in advance of their deadlines to ensure any unanticipated circumstances do not result in a missed assignment. Late exams will be accepted if the following two requirements are met:

a. You must contact me in advance of the exam’s deadline to make arrangements for its completion.

b. You must complete the exam within the week following its due date.

Late exams will be subject to the following penalty: 10% will be deducted from your grade for the first day late, and an additional 5% will be deducted on each subsequent day, with a maximum penalty of 25%.

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Grade Distribution and Scale

In alignment with ASU academic policies, no D may apply to a major or minor field.

Grade Distribution

Assignments Points Per Assignment

Total Points % of Grade

3 Exams 100 points each 300 points 75%

13 Homework Assignments 5 points each 65 points 16%

14 Discussion Posts 2 points each 28 points 7%

Syllabus Quiz 7 points 7 points 2%

Optional Extra Credit Project 20 points 20 points Bonus 5%!

Grade Scale

360 – 400 points 90-100% A 320 – 359 points 80-89% B 280 – 319 points 70-79% C 240 – 279 points 60-69% D Less than 240 points 59% and below F

ADA Statement

Students who need special accommodation to complete this class should contact the instructor and the Adams State University Counseling Center at 719-587-7746.

Academic Integrity

Cheating, plagiarism, unauthorized possession or disposition of academic materials, or the falsification or fabrication of one’s academic work will NOT be tolerated. Any offense will result in a zero for the exam or exercise in question and may result in failure of the course. Please refer to the ASU Student Handbook for more information: http://www.adams.edu/pubs