COURSE SYLLABUS
Course Prefix/Number: STA 5176
Course Title: Biostatistics
Course Credit Hours:3H
Prerequisite:STA2023 or similar statistics course. See UWF Catalog for details.
Instructor Name and Contact Information
Dr Raid Amin
Professor
Mathematics and Statistics
Building 38 Room 116
Email: ramin@uwf.edu
Phone: (850) 474-3014
Office Hours: I will use Elluminate to hold office hours. The fixed times are
as follows: TR 9:30-10:30 a.m. and MW 7-8 p.m.
Course Description: This is a second course in statistics for students in the Biological
Sciences. Topics covered include analysis of variance, regression analysis, nonparametric
statistics, and contingency tables. Offered concurrently with STA 4173; graduate student
will be assigned additional work. STA 5176 is fully online with its own online office hours
and discussions. It is similar to STA4173, but it has additional material, making it a
graduate level course. This is a direct extension of the material that was covered in
STA2023, which ended with a comparison of two population means.
STA2023 is a pre-requisite for this course (see UWF Catalog). It is important to have a good
understanding of inferential statistics, such as confidence intervals and tests of hypotheses
(for two samples). We will start where STA2023 ended, so it is very useful to dig up your
old statistics lecture notes and study the material on confidence intervals and tests of
hypotheses.
Quality Assurance: This course is reviewed for quality by assessment personnel within the
School of Allied Health and Life Sciences (SAHLS) to meet national standards established by
the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Council on Education for Public
Health, and other organizations recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. SAHLS
also reports annually on internal quality enhancement initiatives. Initiatives in online
program development are in line with our theme, "High Quality, with Innovation to Build
and Support an Engaged Online Learning Community".
Purpose:Dr Amin will provide information within each module of this course.
Major Goals:Dr Amin will provide information within each module of this course.
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the course, students will have knowledge on:
Dr Amin will provide information within each module of this course.
Course Requirements and Policies
Students will learn about the lessons through readings, discussions, and individual
performance. Participants will be required to participate in asynchronous online
discussions as described in each lesson. E-mail and threaded discussion will be used
to facilitate class discussion.
Generally speaking, the course will include reading assignments, problem solving,
LOTS and LOTS of computations! You may be asked to posting your answers to a
discussion forum or Dropbox folder designed for this purpose.
You will be using the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) throughout the course.
My lecture notes have all necessary SAS programs for this course. You will be
responsible for running programs and for understanding the print-outs. This is a
major part of this course. UWF has a site license for SAS, and it is also possible for
students to install SAS on their home PC. Practice is a must! Have a CD handy for
this course. Save on it all your SAS programs with the corresponding output files so
that you will keep documentation for future use. Many SAS assignments will depend
on previous SAS programs so it is saving you plenty of time if you have access to
your older SAS programs. Use e-desktop to access SAS at UWF.
There will be no make-up exams given. Discuss with me any scheduling problems
very early in the semester and definitely before exam days. If a student has an
approval from me to miss an exam, then the final exam will have more weight for
this student. For example, if a student is excused from taking Exam 1, then his/her
Final will have weight 40% (10% + 30%).
No automatic late withdrawal from this course with a 'W' is possible after the
deadline. Refer to the UWF Catalog for details.
Grading Evaluation
The course grade will be evaluated as follows:
Project
Online discussions
Homework
Exam I
Exam II
Final Exam
Total
10%
10%
20%
15%
15%
30%
100%
Explanation of the grading evaluation:
a. Project. Each student will be involved with collecting data from some
applications in the Biological or health sciences, and to analyze the data and then
write a report about the findings. The software SAS must be used in the analysis
of the data. I will post details about the project description when the time is right
for you to get started on it.
b. Online discussions. Students are highly encouraged to participate in any online
discussion that I might schedule. You are welcome also to discuss the lessons
amongst yourselves by using the threaded discussions, chat rooms, or email.
c. Homework. The homework is designed to complement the lectures, and is
essential for a full grasp of the material. You are encouraged to attempt all
homework exercises. I encourage you strongly to post your questions in the elearning discussion forums so that other students and I can help out when
needed. I will assist you with any problems during office hours. Selected
exercises will be collected and graded, but you are responsible to practice all of
the assigned problems.
d. Exams. The exams are emailed to you at given times of the semester, and you
will be given a specific time to complete your exam and email me back the
solutions. I will make use of a teaching center to proctor the comprehensive final
exam. The final exam will be an in-class, closed book exam in which a simple
one-page formula sheet is allowed. No examples or solutions are allowed on the
formula sheet. The final exam is comprehensive and is designed to reflect any
improvements in the students' performances.
Letter grade equivalencies are as follows:
Grade
Range
91 – 100
90 – 91
88 – 90
81 – 88
80 – 81
78 – 80
Equivalent Letter
Grade
A
AB+
B
BC+
Grade Range
71 – 78
70 – 71
68 – 70
61 – 68
60 - 61
Below 60
Equivalent Letter
Grade
C
CD+
D
DF
Required Texts
Biostatistical Analysis, 4th ed. by Jerrold H. Zar, Publisher : Prentice Hall
Dr Amin’s lectures (to be listed for each module of this course)
Expectations for Academic Conduct/Plagiarism Policy:
Academic Conduct Policy: (Web Format) | (PDF Format) | (RTF Format)
Plagiarism Policy: (Word Format) | (PDF Format) | (RTF Format)
Student Handbook: (PDF Format)
ASSISTANCE:
Students with special needs who require specific examination-related or other courserelated accommodations should contact Barbara Fitzpatrick, Director of Disabled Student
Services (DSS), dss@uwf.edu, (850) 474-2387. DSS will provide the student with a letter
for the instructor that will specify any recommended accommodations.