Lab 04 on Representing and Benchmarking

ISM04LAB.docx is now available on the main website for this course. Download it from LINK. -- also download associated data in ISM04_data_lab.xlsx from the bottom of the same webpage.

If sufficient students request it, we can arrange a lab session on Monday (at regular class time 9:00 to 10:30, where someone can help students to do the labs. 

Discussion: Aim to learn or to "earn"? what is useful knowledge?

During my seminar class i shared with my students my understanding of the problems with logical positivism and how it effects all western secular knowledge. This initiated a discussion with the students in which they shared their feedback and two concerns they had of their understanding of the welcome address of Dr.Asadur Rehman.  I think this forum is the place to share the discussion and my response to that, so please share your views on this as well to do to the discussion. 

1. Question about science:

One student (keeping name anonymous) raised a confusion about Dr.Asad Zaman's welcome address that we should not learn scientific knowledge but how can we do without that and that is the basis for all the knowledge that has progressed today? I responded that my understanding of what Dr.Zaman is saying is not that muslim students should stop learning science as that goes without saying, and that is already going on and will continue to go on in the future, but we don't need the entire world population pursuing science. Also what Dr.Zaman is urging is what is neglected and an area which needs work and this is looking at the problems caused by the failures of logical positivism. Definition of what is science changes in every moment of history. The work that needs to be done is what is stressed –for e.g. using an example used by Dr.Zaman elsewhere in class , the knowledge that is useful versus knowledge that is useless, an automobile manufacturer may know how every part works but he may never be able to drive the car if he doesn't learn the skill to drive.

So the ongoing question for tafakur for me in my field of studies is what is “useful knowledge” at any one particular moment of history and how to strive towards learning and sharing “useful knowledge” versus “useless” one.

2. Question about learning to earn: 

Another point from Dr.Zaman which a very good student of mine raised was why should we not focus on “earning” we need to earn to look after out families and those around me. To this my response is to aim to make higher aims than simply “earning” and if you do so you will automatically earn in the process. That is my understanding and experience please comment and share your views or different understanding of these two questions raised in your mind, or if they have been cleared at this stage of our class feel free to share your process too. 

LEC 3 Computational Quiz is Open

Computational quiz of lecture 3 is open and will remain open till Tuesday midnite. Please make sure to complete it before Tuesday mid night.Those students who have not attempted quiz by that time (whether pass or fail) will not be allowed to enter LIVE CLASS on Wednesday Morning..

Failures Deleted

Total Poiints of Lecture 3 Comprehension Quiz are 15. 8 points or above is more than 50% and passing. I have deleted ALL scores of 7 or below, so all students who failed now have another chance. I understand that the format of this course is ENTIRELY NEW and VERY DIFFERENT from anything the students have experienced before. Furthermore, some students are struggling with EXCEL which they have not used before. So I am trying to make it very easy for them. Please remember that this is a SPACE AGE course. Once you learn how to learn from a course like this, you can get an education in anything you want. It is all on the internet in very high quality format online courses.
UPDATE: I have again deleted all scores which were failures on second attempt -- (but not on first attempt). That means that ALL who failed still have a chance to try and improve scores so that they can reach 50%

ALSO NOTE THAT I have updated and improved the LAB03 recently, so if anyone downloaded an old copy, please get a new copy of ISMLAB03.doxc from the webpage for Lecture 3.  

The Magnificient Seven (or Seven Samurai)

Congratulations to the following seven students for obtaining PERFECT scores on the Computational Quiz. I have awarded them a VIRTUAL chocolate. This VIRTUAL chocolate can be converted into a real chocolate if claimed from me at a time I am in a good mood.

1. Mahwish Alvi
2. Hina Irshad
3. Rafat Mahmood
4. Zobia Neelum
5. Naveedur Rahman
6. Salman Tahir
7. Zunaira Zareen

DO (or REDO) Computational Quiz TODAY

I have extended the deadline for the computational quiz by one day. I have also DELETED ALL FAILING SCORES. This means that all students who failed can try once again. Total points on quiz are 21, and 1 to 010 is less than 50% and hence failing scores. Scores of 11 or above are passing scores.

Please make sure to take this quiz today. For the rest of the week, the outline of tasks is available at the MOOC PAGE

DEADLINE for computational quiz: BEFORE live lecture

Due to a mistake, the deadline was set wrong on the computational quiz. For the live class, it is ESSENTIAL that students have done the work prior to coming into class. Accordingly, the DEADLINE for the second quiz has been set to Wednesday morning just before the class starts. I want to have the scores and performance of students before me before the lecture so that I can assess their strengths and weaknesses.

By the way, congrats to all fifty plus students (live & online) -- all have passed the first comprehension quiz.

2nd Attempt Allowed for Lecture 1 Comprehension

2nd Attempt Allowed for Lecture 1 Comprehension

Those students who did not perform well (got marks 10 or less ) in their first attempt, are now allowed to re-take the Quiz.

2nd Attempt Allowed for Lecture 2 Comprehension

Total points on Lecture 2 Comprehension Quiz are 31. Pass marks are 16 (which is more than 50%). At request of one student, I have allowed a second attempt to ALL students who have failed on their first attempt. This means that I have DELETED scores of 15 points or less -- so all such students CAN take the quiz one more time, as a fresh attempt. If someone with higher score wants a second try, they can make special request to Uzma Awan - uzma.economist@gmail.com. However, I would recommend that they concentrate on working on the Lab Exercise and solving the Computational Quiz -- this has been set to allow two attempts by all students.

Lec 02 Comprehension Quiz Deadline extended 24 hours

Since only about 13 students have completed the quiz by now, I have extended the deadline by ONE DAY. Further extensions can be obtained by sending email request to my TA Uzma Awan at uzma.economist@gmail.com. However, you will fall seriously behind if you dont complete the tasks on schedule. ALSO, it will help a lot if you READ the chapter for each lecture. The textbook reading for Lecture 2 is called ISM02Lect.docx and can be downloaded from the WEBPAGE for LECTURE 2.

The initial timeline and steps to take the course were posted in the first post on this blog. ALL of these steps are now organized on a separate page devoted to this MOOC -- check this page to see in sequence what you are supposed to be doing as a student in this course. Note that ONLINE students will receive certificate for completing this course if they do all the assigned work and complete the assigned quizzes. 

Class Schedule

Today is LAST day to complete Lecture 2 COMPREHENSION QUIZ. on Quizstar. The TIMING and SEQUENCE of student activities required for the course is listed on MOOC Page. After taking the comprehension quiz, student should download and complete ISM02Lab.docx and ISM02 Lab.xlsx from LINK. After completing the lab, students must take Lec02 Computational QUIZ on QUIZSTAR -- for this quiz, you will need data provided in file ISM02 DATA 4 Computational quiz. This file can be downloaded from LINK for lecture 2. 

Recordings of Live Lectures available

The first and second lecture were delivered live and via livestreaming:

Lecture 1: Introduction & Special Features of Course  on Monday 10th February, 2014
Lecture 2: What is the difference made by an Islamic Approach to the subject? Wed. 12th Feb 2014

Links to recording are available below:

http://asadzaman.net/online-lecture/introduction-to-statistics-for-muslims/

Future live recordings will also be posted on this page.

Second Quiz is Open

Second Quiz is open and will remain open till Saturday. Please First watch Second lecture and then solve Quiz.  lecture is available at this link http://asadzaman.net/comparisons-part-i-indexing-facts-and-fiction/

QUIZ RETAKE

Those students who have less than 10 marks in Quiz 1, and wanted to retake the Quiz, or those students who could not register due to any reason, and want to attempt Quiz1, are requested to write a written explanation of what happened, why they could not perform well in Quiz and also request for retake. After analyzing their explanation we will allow them to retake the Quiz. Please email at: uzma.economist@gmail.com

All students who registered the course must Follow the blog to get the latest updates.  Use the button on the right hand side upper corner of the blog which says "Follow by email". Enter your email address in the blank space underneath this sign, and you will become a follower of the blog. All posts to the blog will be emailed to you. 

Link for Live Class: Wednesday 12th Feb

Link for Live Class: Wednesday 12th Feb

Today Live class will be from 9:00 to 10:30 am and Live Streaming will be available on the following link. http://pide.org.pk/live.html

Registration & Mechanics.

1. To get all the latest updates, information about class quizes, you must follow the blog.

http://introstat.blogspot.com

To follow by email, use the button on the right hand side upper corner which says "Follow by email". Enter your email address in the blank space underneath this sign, and you will become a follower of the blog. All posts to the blog will be emailed to you.

2. Go to Quizstar website 

http://quizstar.4teachers.org

 sign up as student and register yourself. after registration search the course with key word "asad zaman" or even "zaman" will also works. 

once you find the course " Introduction to Statistics" go to class and start Quiz 

3. Every body is supposed to watch the lectures and attempt the Quiz before live class. as some student registered late, so for this reason Quiz will remain open on wednesday as well. But for next lectures, comprehension Quiz will be closed on Saturday and Lab Quiz will be closed on Tuesday. The live class on wednesdays will be a discussion class in which it will be assumed that everyone has seen the lecture and taken the two quizzes for each lecture. 

Link for 1st Lecture: Monday 10th Feb

The first lecture introduced the special features of this course, and the reason for its name. It has been recorded and is available for listening from the following link:
http://pide.org.pk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=690

Intro Stats Course Starts Today 10th February

The course will start today. I will give a LIVE lecture today (Monday 10th February 2014) in the A.R. Kemal Room at PIDE. Students in nearby areas (QAU) are permitted to attend (if there is space available in the room). This lecture will be recorded and made available -- apparently it will also be livestreamed.

NOTE: at 10:30am -- lecture completed & recorded; recording will be available on PIDE.org.pk website and on my personal website asadzaman.net SOON. This was an introductory lecture, explaining the special features of the course. One student made an excellent suggestion, leading the idea that the title of the course should be: "Introduction to Statistics -- taught in Islamic Style" -- because our goal is not to restrict audience to Muslim students only, but rather to utilize Islamic principles and methods of teaching and learning.

ALL STUDENTS should register as FOLLOWERS of this blog. That way all messages posted to this blog will automatically get emailed to them. All information about this course will be posted to this blog.

The first quiz is  Lec 01 Islamic Knowledge: Comprehension Quiz, WHICH IS NOW OPEN for taking on QUIZSTAR. You only get one chance at this quiz, and it is open till wednesday. In general there will be TWO quizzes on each lecture. One will be lecture comprehension quiz and second will be a calculation quiz.

Some students are taking this as a class on Environmental Valuation Techniques. They will be given extra tasks, and I will set up a separate blog/website for them. They are required to READ the Wikipedia article on Contingent Valuation. Please submit a list of names and email adresses and contact info (mobiles) to my secretary, to receive more information about this.

ONLINE Course Starting Feb 10, 2014: INSTRUCTIONS

Introduction to Statistics

Teacher: Dr. Asad Zaman

COURSE OUTLINE: Course based at PIDE, Islamabad, Pakistan, from February 10th, 2014 for the Spring Semester. Register as a FOLLOWER on this blog, to receive updates & course info.

One LIVE class will be held on Wednesdays 9:00am to 10:30am in Junior Commons Room at PIDE. Students at PIDE will be required to attend. YDF from Planning Commission taking the course are welcome to attend. This class will also be available via LIVESTREAMING to those who are taking the course ONLINE only -- this will be recorded, and made available later for those who cannot watch it live. All other portions of the course will be delivered online.  

Although this course only covers basic concepts, it does so in a new way, so that even people with advanced training in statistics will find many of the ideas to be very new, and different from what they have been taught. The basic course materials are organized on the following website:

https://sites.google.com/site/introstats4muslims/

This course will be organized on the style of an “inverted classroom”. This means that lectures will be viewed by students outside class, and discussions will be held in the classroom. The live-stream sessions will NOT be organized lectures; rather they will be general discussions where the instructor (myself) will focus on asking questions designed to assess student comprehension of the materials they are supposed to have studied outside of class. If I find any important gaps, I will provide additional taped lectures (to be viewed outside class) to supplement the existing lectures.

The format and structure of this class will be new experience for nearly all the students. ORDINARILY, students expect that if they attend class and follow & understand the lectures, this would provide about 75% of the work needed to pass the course. In this class, the once weekly live class will cover only 10-20%. More than 80% of the work will be done by students on their own outside of class.  A detailed explanation of what the students are required to do is listed below.