SPPA 6190 Syllabus and Course Outline, Hillenbrand, Fall 2014
1
SPPA 6190
Quantitative Methods
I. Text
There is no required text for the course.
Recommended: Concepts and Applications of Inferential Statistics, Richard Lowry.
This is a free (good price, eh?) online text. This is not required, and I have not used this
text in the past, but take a look at it. It is a very well written book that covers most of
what we’ll be talking about, and a great deal more. A few of the concepts are explained
in way that is a little different from how I will cover them, but mostly it is pretty similar.
You can find the text here:
http://faculty.vassar.edu/lowry/webtext.html
II. Grading
o Exam 1 (Descriptive Statistics):
o Exam 2 (Inferential Statistics):
65%
35%
[final grade = (exam1*0.65) + (exam2*0.35)]
A. Letter grades. Assignment of letter grades to scores will occur using something fairly
close to the scheme shown below. Adjustments might be made to this scheme depending
on the exact distribution of grades in the class.
94 - 100:
78 - 81:
below 66:
A
CB
E
89 - 93:
70 - 77:
BA
C
82 - 88:
66 - 69:
B
D
B. Exams. Exams will be a combination of the usual kinds of test items that you are
already quite familiar with: short answer, fill in the blank, short- to medium-length
explanations, definitions, statistics problems, drawing and possibly labeling graphs,
multiple choice, and maybe some matching. The date for the exam 1 will be announced
one week in advance. The date for the final is posted on the web (search the web for
“wmu final exam schedule 20XX”, but don’t use ‘XX’; use the actual year).
One more thing about the final exam: Unless some emergency comes up, the date and
time for the final exam is fixed. A few years ago several students, in two different
courses, wrote to let me know that they had made travel arrangements and would not be
in town for the final. These students took a bath on their non-refundable plane tickets.
This had never happened before and it has not happened since. As I am sure you know,
the final exam date is not a suggestion.
SPPA 6190 Syllabus and Course Outline, Hillenbrand, Fall 2014
2
III. Assignments. There will be at least one required assignment (see “Correlation
Assignment,” http://homepages.wmich.edu/~hillenbr/619.html), and there may be others. Due
dates will be announced at the time the assignment is given. Assignments will be graded
pass/fail, but assignments must be turned in and they must be on time. A half of a letter
grade will be deducted from your final grade if an assignment is not turned in, or if it is
turned in more than a week late; two points will be deducted from the final grade for
assignments that are less than one week late. Assignments that are turned in more than
one week past the due date will not be accepted. Assignments are due at class time on
the appropriate date. (I am making a big deal about this, but in the past 30 years or so it
has only come up once, but it was a big deal.)
IV. Homework exercises. There are quite a few exercises on my web page for this
course (see below). Solutions and, in some cases, explanations are attached to each set of
exercises. The exercises do not have to be turned in, but if you have problems with them
please see me. I will try my best to give you a reminder to do these exercises when the
time comes, but it’s pretty obvious, and you do not need to wait for me. When we finish
covering z scores, do the z score problems; after we cover the standard error of estimate,
do the standard error of estimate problems, etc.
V.
Office:
Phone:
Office Hours:
Web page:
Web page for 6190:
CHHS 4468
387-8066
T-Th, 3:30 - 4:30, M after class
(It’s best to email me to set up an appointment, even during
my office hours.)
http://hompages.wmich.edu/~hillenbr
http://homepages.wmich.edu/~hillenbr/619.html
VI. Keeping up
This class meets just once a week. This is a great convenience for those of you
who have a long drive, but it’s also awkward in one very important way – even if you
have paid attention, taken good notes, and followed along with the previous lecture, there
is quite a bit of time for those ideas to leak out of your head. This is a big problem for any
course, but especially the very sequential material we will be covering in this class. By
sequential I mean that it is very hard to understand idea 5 if you only half remember idea
4 on which it is based. Each week I will give a brief review of some of the concepts that
were covered in the previous lecture, but it’s obvious that I cannot repeat the entire
lecture. It is essential that you take time to review your notes from the previous lecture
on the day of or day before our meeting. This will usually take you no more than 30
minutes or so. The workload for this course is not heavy, so you should have plenty of
time to fit that into your schedule. Also, if you are having any trouble following along, I
strongly recommend that you take some time to copy over your notes. If you are having
trouble with any of the concepts, please stop in and we will try to get you back on track.
Sooner is better. I am willing to meet with you in the week preceding an exam, but it is
best not to wait until then.
SPPA 6190 Syllabus and Course Outline, Hillenbrand, Fall 2014
3
VII. Email
A. From time to time I’ll communicate with you by email. You will need to get in
the habit of checking your email regularly. I expect you already are. The only
email address that I have for you is your official WMU account. I do not have a
way to substitute a gmail or any other personal email address.
B. Every now and then a class will have to be cancelled, usually because of poor
weather, but occasionally other things come up. Especially for those of you who
have a fairly long drive, check your email before you head out.
C. I’m happy to take questions by email as long as it’s something that can be
answered in a sentence or two. I just don’t have time to write essays, so I may ask
you to make an appointment, or maybe contact me by phone.
D. I won’t respond to questions on the day or weekend prior to an exam. This is a
brand new issue and it’s beginning to be a real problem.
VIII. Attendance
I do not take attendance, although it is obviously not a good idea to miss class
unless it cannot be avoided. However, if you do miss class you do not have to email me,
and I would prefer it if you didn’t. (This is my problem not yours, but I have a
compulsion about responding to emails and, since I have quite a few students, I spend
more time answering these kinds of emails than I would like.) If you do have to miss
class, (1) I am really unlikely to notice who is missing, and (2) if I do notice, I am going
to assume that you have a good reason. One last thing: if you have something going on
that will require you to miss more than class here and there, please let me know about it.
IX. Knowledge and Skills
This course will contribute to the development of your knowledge and skills
related to KASA Standard III-F: Knowledge of processes used in research and the
integration of research principles into evidence-based clinical practice, as well as KASA
Standard III-A: knowledge of the principles of mathematics. NOTE: It is important to
recognize that ASHA Academic Accreditation standards are now based upon students
demonstrating competencies across a wide range of areas rather than simply completing a
course sequence successfully. Therefore, it is conceivable that a student could receive a
passing grade in a course, but fail to demonstrate competency across all of the topics
covered in that course. If you fail to demonstrate competencies in a particular area
through organized class activities (tests & assignments), you may have to complete
additional work (i.e. remediation) in that area before a passing grade can be assigned.
SPPA 6190 Syllabus and Course Outline, Hillenbrand, Fall 2014
4
IX. Academic honesty, diversity, religious observance, and student disabilities
You are responsible for making yourself aware of and understanding the policies
and procedures in the Undergraduate and Graduate Catalogs that pertain to Academic
Honesty. These policies include cheating, fabrication, falsification and forgery, multiple
submission, plagiarism, complicity and computer misuse. [The policies can be found at
http://catalog.wmich.edu under Academic Policies, Student Rights and Responsibilities.]
If there is reason to believe you have been involved in academic dishonesty, you will be
referred to the Office of Student Conduct. You will be given the opportunity to review
the charge(s). If you believe you are not responsible, you will have the opportunity for a
hearing. You should consult with your instructor if you are uncertain about an issue of
academic honesty prior to the submission of an assignment or test.
For information on the Code of Honor, and general academic policies on such
issues as diversity, religious observance, and student disabilities, see
http://osc.wmich.edu and www.wmich.edu/registrar.
SPPA 6190 Syllabus and Course Outline, Hillenbrand, Fall 2014
SPPA 6190
Quantitative Methods
Course Outline
I. Overview: Course Content and Course Objectives
II. Descriptive Statistics
A. measurement scales
B. descriptive vs. inferential statistics
C. descriptive statistics
1. central tendency
2. variability
3. relative standing
4. the standard normal distribution
5. basic assumptions of parametric statistics
6. correlation and regression
7. explained and unexplained variance
III. Reliability and Validity
IV. Inferential Statistics
A. The logic of inferential statistics: sample means vs. population means
B. The z test: Comparing a sample mean with a population mean
C. The t test: Comparing two sample means
D. The F test (ANOVA): Comparing many sample means
5