STATISTICS 200: Elementary Statistics
Instructor: Dr. Andrew (Andy) Wiesner
Office: 308 Thomas Building
Phone: 814-863-5653
Email: Use ANGEL email system
Email: Use ANGEL email system under Communicate tab. Emails received outside of ANGEL
may go unanswered! NOTE: If you have your ANGEL email forwarded to another internet
account then hitting reply to that email will NOT reply through ANGEL but instead in webmail.
These, too, will not be answered. You will need to return to ANGEL and reply using the ANGEL
email tools.
Office Hours: Since many of you have working schedules and therefore different planned study
days, setting office hours seems pointless. I will routinely check my ANGEL email several times
during the course of a day and will respond promptly. On weekends, I may only check once per
day.
Course Description:
Statistics is the art and science of using sample data to make generalizations about populations.
The topics covered in this course include:



methods for collecting and summarizing data
methods for evaluating the accuracy of sample estimates
techniques for making statistical inferences
Users of statistics -- researchers, government agencies like the Census Bureau and the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, companies like the automakers and drug industry, etc. -- make extensive use of
the computer in applying statistical methods to their problems. So will you! This course will offer
you plenty of practice in analyzing data from a variety of areas. As a result you should be well
prepared for problem-solving involving statistics in the rest of your college courses, as well as
gaining an understanding of the role of statistics in your daily life.
Lesson Notes: Notes will be available in the Lessons folder in ANGEL (https://cms.psu.edu).
Prerequisite: 2 units in algebra
Required Materials:
Textbook: You may purchase course materials from MBS Direct (the bookstore used by
Penn State's World Campus). For pricing and ordering information, please see the MBS Direct
Web site, located at http://direct.mbsbooks.com/psude.htm. MBS Direct can also be contacted at
1-800-325-3252. Materials will be available at MBS Direct approximately three weeks before the
course begins. Alternatively, you may seek these texts from other favorite bookstores. (Note: Be
sure you purchase the edition/publication date listed below.) The following text is required:

Agresti, A. and Franklin, C. (2007). Statistics: The Art and Science of Learning From
Data.. 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, New York. This textbook is bundled with Student Version
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14 of the Minitab software if the book is purchased through the MBS Direct bookstore.
Mac users should purchase SPSS statistical software!
Software: We will be using the statistical software called Minitab. If you purchased the
book through the MBS bookstore then a student version was bundled with the text. If not, then
you will need to acquire a copy (if you do not already have one). Version 15 is now available,
but if you have Version 14 that should suffice. Any versions below 14 will need replaced. Some
purchasing resources are the PSU Computer Store or through Minitab at http://www.minitab.com
At this time Minitab is NOT support by MAC so those of you using a MAC should use SPSS.
For those of you near a PSU campus, most campus labs have Minitab and SPSS installed.
Assignments and Grading
Proctored Final – 110 minutes (approx 50 multiple choice)
30%
8/8 –
8/11
Mastery Quiz 1 – 60 minutes approx 40 multiple choice covering Lessons 1
6/21 –
25%
– 5 Two attempts, higher score recorded
6/27
Mastery Quiz 2 – 60 minutes approx 40 multiple choice covering Lessons 6
25% 8/2 – 8/8
–11Two attempts, higher score recorded
Lab Activity (best 10 of 11) – Requires Minitab/SPSS
10%
1 per
lesson
Unit Quizzes (best 10 of 11) – Requires Minitab/SPSS Two attempts, higher
1 per
10%
score recorded
lesson
Practice Problems - Weekly
0%
1 per
lesson
Proctored Final (30%): One exam will be given during the semester and will be
cumulative. The exam will be available through ANGEL quiz tool. See Assignments
and Grading above for the allotted time. Once you open the exam that time will begin
and you will have that amount of time to complete the exam. As the time deadline ends,
the exam will automatically be submitted. The exam will NOT require Minitab or
SPSS.
CAUTION: Since this exam will be delivered online the issue of technical problems may arise,
for example ANGEL may not be available or your internet connection might be interrupted. In
the case where the problem is ANGEL availability, I will take this under consideration. However,
if your internet connection is the problem then on time completion is the student's responsibility.
This problem is most common for those students who do not plan accordingly;
Mastery Quizzes (25% of final grade) – The semester will consist of two (2) unit
quizzes.
o
o
o
o
You may take each Mastery Quiz twice, with the higher score being recorded.
These quizzes will NOT require Minitab nor SPSS
Note that these questions are randomly selected from a pool of questions.
Therefore second attempts may provide different questions or questions that
appear similar but are not the same as previously asked questions.
The quizzes will be timed to 60 minutes.
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o
o
o
Once you begin the quiz you the timer begins and will not stop. Your quiz will
automatically be submitted after the time expires.
Both mastery quizzes will be delivered using the ANGEL quiz tool.
CAUTION: Since these quizzes will be delivered online the issue of technical
problems may arise, for example ANGEL may not be available or your internet
connection might be interrupted. In the case where the problem is ANGEL
availability, I will take this under consideration. However, if your internet
connection is the problem then on time completion is the student's responsibility.
This problem is most common for those students who do not plan accordingly;
that is, they wait until the last few hours or minutes prior to the deadline until
they take the quiz.
Lab Activities (10% of final grade) - The semester will consist of eleven (11) lab
activities.
o Each lesson will include a Lab Activity
o The grading of activities will be done using a “0% or 100 % method. If all
problems are attempted and all work is shown the student will receive a 100,
even if your final answer is incorrect. Otherwise, the activity will receive a 0.
o All activities will be available in ANGEL as a word document. You will
complete the activity by typing your responses on the document, saving it, and
submitting your solutions to the activity’s respective drop box also located in the
Lab Activity folder for that week’s lesson.
o There is no time restriction other than the due date.
o Minitab/SPSS will be necessary!
o Submit only COMPLETED activities. Multiple submissions may result in a zero
for that activity.
o Upon submission the solutions will be available in the respective Lab Activity
folder.
o You are expected to write using complete, grammatically- and statisticallycorrect sentences where applicable
Unit Quizzes (10% of final grade) – The semester will consist of ten (10) unit quizzes.
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Each lesson will include a Unit Quiz
YOU MAY TAKE EACH QUIZ TWICE – HIGHEST SCORE COUNTS!
The questions come from a pool of questions so the second quiz may differ from
first.
Most of the unit quizzes will require MINITAB or SPSS in order to complete the
quiz.
The quizzes will be timed (typically 30 to 50 minutes).
Once you begin the quiz you the timer begins and will not stop. Your quiz will
automatically be submitted after the time expires.
All unit quizzes will be delivered using the ANGEL quiz tool.
Unit quizzes will pertain to content covered during that lesson.
If you miss a quiz, you will have the opportunity to take it but a grade will not be
recorded.
CAUTION: Since these quizzes will be delivered online the issue of technical
problems may arise, for example ANGEL may not be available or your internet
connection might be interrupted. In the case where the problem is ANGEL
availability, I will take this under consideration. However, if your internet
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connection is the problem then on time completion is the student's responsibility.
This problem is most common for those students who do not plan accordingly;
that is, they wait until the last few hours or minutes prior to the deadline until
they take the quiz.
Practice Problems (0% of final grade) – Instead of homework these problems are going
to be considered practice. The solutions are available and you are welcome to ask questions
regarding any of these problems. The point of this is to provide an opportunity for students to
have problems to use as practice to help bolster your understanding of the material. For example,
one may use these problems to aid in their understanding of a concept in which they are
struggling to grasp. You will not be asked to submit any solutions; these are strictly there for you
to use at your own discretion.
Grading Scale: The final letter grading will follow the standard University guidelines
and are as follows (All grades will be available in the ANGEL grade book under Report tab):
F
D
C
C+
B-
B
B+
A-
A
0
60
70
77
80
83
87
90
93
Collaboration: You are expected to complete all assignments on your own. Anyone caught
sharing solutions to any materials will be subject to an F grade and will NOT be allowed to drop
the course. You are on your honor to complete each assignment honestly (e.g. not use another
website to help answer quiz/exam questions or have another person complete
assignment/questions for you. If you have questions regarding an assignment I encourage you to
email me or post a question to the Discussion Board for that lesson. At this time the final is not
proctored. However, I reserve the right to require an exam or mastery quiz to be proctored on an
individual basis. You are strongly advised to consult the Penn State Academic Integrity Policy at:
http://www.science.psu.edu/academic/Integrity/index.html
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