Schedule
Pre-Class Preparation: December 30- January 5,
7-9
Pre-Class Exam: The test will be administered Friday in class.
Class Location: UWF Campus
Monday, Jan. 6, Bldg 36, Rooom 191 (where QMB meets)
Friday, Jan. 10 & Saturday, Jan.11, Bldg. 74, Room 105
Monday, Jan. 13, Bldg 36, Room 191 (where QMB meets)
Class Meets: Monday, January 6, 5:30-8:30pm, Friday, January
10, 5:30 pm - 9:30 pm; Saturday, January 11, 8:00 am - 12:00 noon and 1:00 pm
- 5:00 pm, and Monday, January 13, 5:30-8:30pm
Post Class Study: January 12, 14, 15
Optional Review Session: TBA
Final Examination: Thursday, January 16, 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm,
UWF Campus, John C. Pace Library, 5th floor, Foundation Room, FWB Campus, TBA
For directions to the campus or to the building and room, please visit this link: http://nautical.uwf.edu/facil/map/main.cfm?SupportFlash=1
Professor
Dr. Nestor M. Arguea
Associate Professor
Department of Marketing and Accounting
email: narguea@uwf.edu
Phone: (850) 474-3071
Module description
The course will cover basic statistics concepts including: descriptive statistics, measures of location, measures of dispersion, basic probability theory, the normal distribution, inferential statistics, basic notions of hypothesis testing, and introduction to correlation analysis. In addition, this course intends to teach students the basics of data analysis, and access to information by providing them with the latest sources of information at the firm level, State level, or Federal level, from key sites in the Internet.
Objectives
The objective of this is to provide students with the foundation background in applied statistics with the purpose of facilitating: The understanding of the relationship between statistics and the applications to business decision making. The reading and understanding of statistics presented in business oriented reports, and technical literature. The calculation of statistics from data. The interpretation and communication of statistical information to non-technical readers.
Required study materials
HyperStat Online Textbook. Copyright © 1993-2001 David M. Lane, http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/index.html, This is an electronic text that you can access for free.
Introduction to quantitative decision making, http://www.wiley.com/college/harnett/,
Harnett, D.L. and J.F. Horrell, Data, Statistics, and Decision Models with Excel.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998.
This is the main text used in QMB 6305 Quantitative Methods for Business. The
textbook comes with two diskettes: a data disk, and a set of Excel macros. Follow
the directions under "Pre-class assignments & assessments" to install the macros
in Excel.Chapter 1 of Harnett and Horrell Data, Statistics, and Decision Models
with Excel.
A note on concepts in the online text
The statistical concepts presented in both the online text and the hard copy text for the QMB course are very consistent in the notation with very few exceptions. We will follow the language used in the QMB text. For instance:
When going through the concepts in the online text do not go beyond the concepts listed in outline of the units presented below. Some of the more advanced topics in the online text will be covered later in the regular QMB class.
Recommended study materials:
StatSoft, Inc. (2001). Electronic Statistics Textbook. Tulsa, OK: StatSoft.,
http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/stathome.html.
A more advanced text in statistics. Recommended sections include:
Note.The Statistical Glossary works well only in Netscape. Prometheus will open another Netscape window for the glossary (when you click on Statistical Glossary). It does not work well within Prometheus using Internet Explorer. If you use Internet Explorer, one alternative is to manually open another IE session outside Prometheus to access the Statistical Glossary.
SurfStat australia, http://www.anu.edu.au/nceph/surfstat/surfstat-home/surfstat.html
Useful for the exercises section.
Pre-class assignments
(1) Reading
Read the following chapters from HyperStat
Online Textbook. Copyright © 1993-2001 David M. Lane
1. Introduction to statistics
2. Data description (univariate)
2.1. Review the exercises and solutions related to descriptive statistics in the following two links:
3. Introduction to probability
5. Also, read Chapter 1 Introduction to quantitative decision making, from
Harnett and Horrell's Data, Statistics, and Decision models with Excel.
(2) Loading Excel macros
Load into Excel the macros in file KADD.XLA located in one of the diskettes
that comes with the textebook. If you purchased a used book that did not include
the file with the macros, you can download
it by following this link.
Steps for the installation of the macros
(a) If you have the diskette with the macro go to (b). Otherwise, download
the file kadd.exe from the site above. Execute kadd.exe (this is a self-extracting
file) so the file kadd.xla is created. Store the file in a folder and remember
the location.
(b) Open Excel. Go to Tools, and select Add-ins. Select Browse, and search for
the file kadd.xla. Once you find it, select OK. Excel will add that set of macros
to the list of add-ins (be sure that the macro has a check once loaded in Excrel).
Select OK. The macro will be loaded and will appear as a new menu item next
to the help item in the menu bar.
(c) Kadd should be ready. Go to menu and select Kadd. A list of about 15 items
will appear. Try the Probabilities command (we will be using this in class).
Self assessment
Go through the test (under testing) as an assessment of prior knowledge of the
subject. This test is designed to help students identify difficult topics and
will not be graded. Go ahead and take
the test now . Some of the topics in these questions may be a little difficult.
They will be covered in class.
There will be a pre-class assessment test given during the first in-class meeting
that will count as 20% of your overall grade.
Plan of the Foundations course
The plan for this foundations course is to cover the topics listed in the outline
that follows in twelve hours of instruction distributed over two days: a four-hour
session on Friday (5:30pm-9:30pm), and an eight-hour session on Saturday (8:00am-12:00pm,
and 1:00pm-5:00pm).
Outline
The topics of the course are organized in 8 units.
Units 1, 2
Data analysis. Applications in business
What is statistics?
Sources of data
Applications in business
Activities in statistics
Descriptive statistics
Inferential statistics
Population and sample
Random sampling
Graphical analysis
Data description
Bar graphs and pie charts
Box plots
Frequency tables and histograms
Cross-classification tables
Scatterplots
Using Excel
Numerical analysis
Measures of location
Measures of variability
Measures of relative location
Measures of association between two variables
Covariance
Correlation
Use of the standard deviation
Using Excel
Unit 3
Basics of probability
Probability
The probability of an event
Probability rules
Conditional probability
Joint probability
Marginal probability
Using Excel
Discrete probability distributions
Random variable
Discrete/Continuous random variable
Discrete probability distributions
Information about the random variable
Expected value
Variance
Standard deviation
Probability density function (PDF)
Cumulative distribution function (CDF)
Using Excel
The binomial distribution
Using Excel
Unit 4
The normal distribution
Probability models for continuous random variables
The Normal Probability Distribution
The Standard Normal Probability Distribution
Finding areas under the normal
Computing the z-value
Areas between 0 and positive z
Find a value of z for a given area
Detecting normality
Histogram
Intervals: 1s, 2s, and 3s
Interquartile range over s
Normal probability plot
Sample distribution
The sampling distribution of the mean: a central limit theorem
Using Excel
Units 5, 6
Estimation
Inferential statistics
Point estimators
Estimation of the population mean
Reliability of Estimation of the population mean
95% Confidence intervals
Estimation of population proportions
Using Excel
Units 7, 8
Hypothesis testing
Concept
Null and alternative
Objective
Possible results
Elements of a test of hypothesis
One-side and two-side tests
Using Excel
Post class assignment
Study for test
Assessment
Final exam