This assignment is intended to help you learn to do the following:
- Discuss the importance and application of statistics in the 21st century.
- Describe various statistical concepts and terminologies related to data collection.
- Compare and contrast observational and experimental studies.
- Describe types of experiments and identify the components of experimental studies.
Overview
- Make sure that you have accessed all resources in the Unit 1 Preparation object before starting this assignment.
Overview
Welcome to Module 1. In this module, we will consider some sampling designs for surveys and some designs for experimental studies. We will also make a distinction between an experimental study and an observational study. You will also discuss the importance of studying statistics at this level. You will constantly engage your mental faculties by asking yourself critical questions such as: how is this material relevant, how can I apply it in new settings, and what is the key take away from the readings of the module, among others.As you study the assigned reading for this module, note the following:
- The design of the data collection process is the crucial step in intelligent data gathering. The process takes a conscious, concerted effort, focused on the following steps:
- Specifying the objective of the study, survey, or experiment
- Identifying the variable(s) of interest
- Choosing an appropriate design for the survey or experimental study
- Collecting the data
- To specify the objective of the study, you must understand the problem being addressed. For example, the transportation department in a large city wants to assess the public’s perception of the city’s bus system in order to increase the use of buses within the city. Thus, the department needs to determine what aspects of the bus system determine whether or not a person will ride the bus. The objective of the study is to identify factors that the transportation department can alter to increase the number of people using the bus system.
- To identify the variables of interest, you must examine the objective of the study. For the bus system, some major factors can be identified by reviewing studies conducted in other cities and by brainstorming with the bus system employees. Some of the factors may be safety, cost, cleanliness of the buses, whether or not there is a bus stop close to the person’s home or place of employment, and how often the bus fails to be on time. The measurements to be obtained in the study would consist of importance ratings (very important, important, no opinion, somewhat unimportant, very unimportant) of the identified factors. Demographic information, such as age, sex, income, and place of residence, would also be measured. Finally, the measurement of variables related to how frequently a person currently rides the buses would be of importance.
- Once the objectives are determined and the variables of interest are specified, you must select the most appropriate method to collect the data. Data collection processes include surveys, experiments, and the examination of existing data from business records, censuses, government records, and previous studies. The theory of sample surveys and the theory of experimental designs provide excellent methodology for data collection. Usually surveys are passive. The goal of the survey is to gather data on existing conditions, attitudes, or behaviors. Thus, the transportation department would need to construct a questionnaire and then sample current riders of the buses and persons who use other forms of transportation within the city.
- Experimental studies, on the other hand, tend to be more active: The person conducting the study varies the experimental conditions to study the effect of the conditions on the outcome of the experiment. For example, the transportation department could decrease the bus fares on a few selected routes and assess whether the use of its buses increased. However, in this example, other factors not under the bus system’s control may also have changed during this time period. Thus, an increase in bus use may have taken place because of a strike of subway workers or an increase in gasoline prices. The decrease in fares was only one of several factors that may have “caused” the increase in the number of persons riding the buses.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this module, you should be able to do the following:
- Discuss the importance and application of statistics in the 21st century.
- Describe various statistical concepts and terminologies related to data collection.
- Compare and contrast observational and experimental studies.
- Review some statistical analysis software tools (SAS, Excel, R)
- Perform simple tasks in a statistical analysis software tool, such as accessing the data libraries, uploading new data sets, creating variables, etc.
- The following resources are available for novice SAS users ( see attachment)
- SAS On Demand for Academics on YouTube (Links to an external site.) (click on SAS studio link For Students)
- Study EXCELLENT SAS on Demand for Academics Support Page resources that include video explanations and demonstrations:
- Go to the SAS on Demand for Academics (Links to an external site.) page.
- Click on Access now link in the middle of the page.
- Go to Independent Learner – Step 2: Write Your SAS Programs.
- Click on SAS Studio video library.
- Under CATEGORIES tab, click on How To Tutorials.
- See the video resources under SAS Studio.
- Videos on R
How to import data and install packages
Descriptive Statistics in Excel (Links to an external site.)
- In this assignment, you are required to demonstrate your understanding of concepts, tools, and/or techniques covered in the course readings and class activities for this unit. You will demonstrate this through completion of selected practice exercises at the end of assigned chapter readings.
Action Items
- Based on your study of this unit’s assigned readings (Chapter 2), discuss with your group members to complete the following practice exercises:
- 2
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- 16
- 22
- 23
- 31
- Type your answers with any supporting work on a Word document. If you use the SAS software to complete any statistical analysis in answering these practice questions, copy and paste the outputs into this document.
- Citation: Utilize proper/correct APA citations in all your responses and in all references where applicable.
- Submit your assignment to Turnitin. Give yourself enough time to revise and resubmit ahead of the due date.
- By the due date indicated, upload your final work to Turnitin, including your peer participation evaluation form as an appendix.
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