FOR564.513
Spring, 2008
STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY
ARTHUR TEMPLE COLLEGE OF FORESTRY AND AGRICULTURE
Spring, 2008
FOR564.501
Data Analysis
Prelude: Welcome to your graduate course in data analysis. Notice that the title is not
statistics. While mathematics teaches statistics that is more theoretical, the Arthur
Temple College of Forestry desires students have a more applied emphasis which
includes the understanding and application of data analysis. I know you will find the
course challenging and stimulating. (Survival may come to mind as well.) I hope you
leave this course with not just knowledge, but also increased skill levels that will serve
you well as a professional, including being successful in your thesis project.
I.
Instructor
Office:
Office Phone:
FAX:
E-mail:
II.
Dr. Ray Darville, Professor of Sociology
Associate Faculty Member, Arthur Temple College of
Forestry and Agriculture
LA336/LA335
(936) 468-2256/468-4405/468-4001
(936) 468-2162
rdarville@sfasu.edu
How to do Well in This Course
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
Know how to access the course materials via WebCT at SFA:
http://cp.sfasu.edu/cp/home/loginf. View the course site every day for
news, updates, and other important information.
Have a positive attitude toward learning and this course—your
accomplishments are determined more by attitude than by your
intelligence. This course represents an investment of your money, time,
energy, and self. Treat the course with care.
Set a numeric goal for each exam and for your final grade, then do
something each day to reach those goals. Writing the goals helps.
Ask questions. The only dumb question is the unasked question. I
suspect that if you don’t know the answer to your question, other students
don’t as well.
Find a study partner and review together on a regular basis.
Submit all assignments on time.
The text materials have been carefully selected for your education and
enjoyment. You are expected to read when indicated. More later on this.
Consult with me as needed. I try to return phone calls and emails as
quickly as I can.
Remember that you are ultimately responsible for your grade in here. I
will lecture, point you to appropriate resources, answer your questions, but
in the final analysis, you will be teaching yourself.
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J.
III.
IV.
Get student support for OIT Distance Education Student Support at:
http://www.oit.sfasu.edu/disted/studsup/index.html.
Software and Texts
A.
Software
 Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint (or PowerPoint Viewer) and
viewer for digital audio-video files
 SPSS Graduate Student Version (recommended) or SPSS
Professional Version.
o The Graduate Student Version software can be purchased
at http://www.journeyed.com/ for about $200. The license
expires in four years. The same software can be rented for
12 months from http://www.e-academy.com. Textbooks
and software can be purchased through these retail outlets:
http://www.sfasu.edu.bkstr.com or http://www.amazon.com
or http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ or
http://www.journeyed.com/ or http://vig.prenhall.com/ or
http://www.collegebooksdirect.com/
o There is a Mac version of SPSS, but it is not exactly the
same as the PC version as to its interface. However, the
programming and analysis engine underlying the different
programs are the same. I recommend that you use the PC
version because it is featured in the Szafran text.
B.
Text
(1) Szafran, Bob. Answering Questions with Statistics: Twentysomethings
Now and 30 Years Ago. Spring, 2008. Required. To be purchased only
at SFA Bookstore (Barnes and Noble). This is our main text in the course
and will be used a daily basis. It comes shrink-wrapped, and you will
need to buy a 3-ring binder for it.
Course Objectives
A.
B.
C.
D.
V.
Spring, 2008
To guide you in learning basic data analysis for the social sciences,
ranging from data entry to univariate analysis to multivariate analysis.
To show you how to set up a data set for statistical analysis.
To assist you in learning how to use SPSS as a data analysis tool.
To help you to develop knowledge and skills to work on your thesis project
or other independent research projects.
Operating Procedures
A.
Class Attendance
1.
Because we will not meet face-to-face, participation via email,
discussion groups, chat sessions, and phone calls will be essential
to be successful in this course. I will establish some virtual office
hours during the week that are dedicated to you and this course.
Times will be announced.
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B.
C.
VI.
Spring, 2008
Class Structure
1.
My lectures have been recorded on video. These lectures will
provide a substantial amount of course content. However, please
keep in mind that the lectures do no correspond to the textbook
completely and perfectly. The videoed lectures are meant to
supplement the lecture notes, and not the lectures supplemented
the videoed lectures. Students in previous courses have found the
video on CD to be helpful as they study the material on their own.
2.
You will also be given a set of PowerPoint lecture notes that have
been developed to aid your understanding of the material. These
notes are essential for your understanding in the class. I update
these every semester. You should download them, print them, and
bring them to class each week.
3.
We will have one or two weekly chat sessions. You are expected
to attend at least one chat session per week via WebCT. Specific
topics will be discussed based on my understanding of problem
areas for the class. I hope to provide you before the chat with a list
of questions and issues to focus our chat. Furthermore, I am
hoping to spend some of this time discussing broader issues, not
“how to” issues, which will dominate work early in the class.
4.
Reading quizzes over the textbook material will be given. These
will be taken via WebCT. The beginning and ending time for the
quizzes will be posted; you will have approximately 7 days to
complete each quiz and will take one or two each week. Quiz
scores will be posted following the end of each quiz period. They
will consist of 10 randomly-chosen true/false or multiple choice
questions taken directly from the texts. Each quiz will be worth 100
points.
5.
You may collaborate on data analysis exercises, but your submitted
work must be your own. Doing is crucial to learning; without the
doing learning in data analysis is very important.
Academic Integrity
1.
The instructor will follow the SFA policy on Academic Integrity
(A9.1), last revised January 19, 2006. You should review this
document carefully during the first week of class.
http://www.sfasu.edu/acadaffairs/policiesandprocedures.asp
Course Assignments
A.
We will have two major exams, including the final. Each exam will cover a
lot of material so it is important to not only keep up in the class, but review
previous material periodically. The exams may consist of a few multiple
choice or true-false questions and some exercises or problems. However,
the emphasis will not be on memorizing and calculating formulas, but
rather on understanding, interpreting, and dealing with data issues and
situations. Each exam will be emailed to you by the instructor or placed
on the course website. The exam will come with complete instructions on
how and when to complete the exam. Celebrations normally include
results from data analysis procedures in SPSS with instructions to answer
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B.
C.
D.
VII.
Spring, 2008
specific and general questions about the output. Hence, the exams
involve a great deal of writing in an open-ended format. I usually give
students a practice celebration before the first, graded one to help
students to adjust to this different type of work.
Exercises and assignments associated with material covered in class will
be given. You may choose to do some work together, but keep in mind
that your work must be your own original work. You cannot submit the
same assignment. These assignments will be submitted via Microsoft
Word as attachments to emails. Included in your submission will be any
and all SPSS output that you generate for the chapter assignments.
Some of the work will simply amount to fill-in-the-blank assignments to
test your conceptual understanding. Other work will consist of responding
to specific problems that will be selected from the end of each chapter.
Assignments are designed with your thesis in mind; that is, I will give
assignments that will give you practice at: running statistical procedures,
interpreting output, writing results from the output, and drawing logical
conclusions based on the results. The instructor will give these to the
students in the course modules. Each assignment will be worth 100
points. I will give you the submission deadline for each assignment.
Assignments submitted after the deadline will be graded, but will have a
total possible score of 50. It’s better to submit an assignment late than
not at all for the points and for the educational value. Data analysis is
learned best by doing. (Repeat that three times now and remember it for
the next 16 weeks.)
Every student is expected to be present at chats. These are
teaching/learning times. A script of each chat will be placed on our
WebCT site for reference and reading, but there can be no substitution for
being present. Chats are interactive with the instructor asking lots of
questions to probe students’ level of understanding.
Each student will complete an evaluation of the course at the end of the
semester via WebCT. This evaluation will be due at the end of Dead
Week.
Evaluation
A.
B.
Grading Formula
1.
Exams (2)
2.
Quizzes
3.
Assignments
Grading Scheme
90% - 100% =
80% - 89% =
70% - 79% =
60% - 69% =
00% - 59% =
60%
15%
25%
100%
A
B
C
D
F
“excellent”
“good”
“average”
“poor”
“failing”
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