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.

PRELIMINARY WORK [to be done PRIOR to  starting the course]

Most of the course material is available online at the website listed above. The videotaped lectures are available from my website asadzaman.net – click on the tab marked ONLINE LECTURES and then on the entry for Introduction to Statistics for Muslims. At the bottom of this page is a link marked FEATURES which describes the special features of this course. Read this to get an understanding of the novel ideas incorporated in the substance and pedagogy of this course.

Some basic familiarity with EXCEL is required as a background for this course. Most of you will ALREADY have this background, and do not need to do anything. Those who are new to EXCEL or feel uncomfortable should have a look at the EXCEL LESSONS on the google website referred to earlier:

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

In particular there are three PDF files which discuss in detail the EXCEL tasks required for this course.

FIRST WEEK: February 10^th to 15^th – Introduction and Motivation.

The background material discussed in previous paragraph should be covered by all students. After covering this background, the first step is to WATCH the first lecture: Islamic Approaches to Knowledge. This is available from the page linked below: 

https://sites.google.com/site/introstats4muslims/textbook/l01-islamic-knowledge

You can either download lecture and watch on your own computer, or watch directly from my website asadzaman.net.  Please download the file: ISM01Transcript.docx from the webpage listed above. This is a TRANSCRIPT – a written version of the words spoken with the slides (sometimes corrected a little). As you view the lecture, keep the transcript open. If you have difficulty understanding a sentence, you can pause the movie and view the transcript.

The second step is to read the lecture. This is the document ISM01main.doc. This can also be downloaded from the webpage for this lecture listed above.

The third step is to take a quiz which tests your comprehension on this lecture. To do this, you must register on website: http://quizstar.4teachers.org/   On this website there is a link to a Student Login Page. Go to this page, create a login for yourself, register for the class entitled Introduction to Statistics – there may be several courses with this title; make sure you find the right one. After registering for this course, you will be able to take the first quiz, which will be graded and your grade will be automatically recorded for my viewing. 

The fourth step is to come to (or watch via live-streaming) the live class which will be held weekly on Wednesdays from 9:00am to 10:30am.  Students in the classroom at PIDE will be able to participate in the discussion and ask questions [and, most frighteningly, be asked questions]. All others (online students) can post questions on the Introduction to Statistics BLOG  . I will post answers to important questions, as well as any other relevant information on this blog. All students should register on this blog so that they receive notices posted to the blog.

An optional fifth step is to read the supplementary readings associated with the lecture which are listed on the page for the lecture. These are not required, but meant for those who are interested in deeper knowledge about some of the issues discussed briefly in the lecture.

THIS WILL COMPLETE the requirements for the first week of classes.  Because the first week is mostly introduction and motivation, it is SIMPLER and has fewer steps than subsequent weeks, where technical material with statistical content will be discussed. Organizational problems like registering with QUIZSTAR, taking quizzes, enrolling in the BLOG, etc. should be sorted out by the end of this week, so that the technical problems don’t cause difficulty in the subsequent lectures.

SECOND WEEK: Friday, Feb 15^th to Friday Feb 21^nd 2014. Lecture 2: COMPARISONS Part I.

Comparisons Part I: Indexing, Facts and Fictions

One of the simplest operations, and one of the most important and useful, is a comparison: which of two quantities is larger?  On the surface, it seems like a simple thing – compare two numbers like 55 and 72, and decide which is larger. When we look deeper, then it becomes more complex, because both numbers may be imperfect measures of some underlying real quantity which is unknown. This imperfection and uncertainty creates serious problems in comparisons. While they appear to be that same, some numbers are facts, while others are fictions.  The student should learn to recognize the difference.

Our goal in this lecture is to do the following things:

A: Defines the subject matter of Statistics as a branch of rhetoric: how to make persuasive arguments with numbers. 

B: Show that there are two types of data: one type measures some aspect of reality while the other type is fictional and imaginary. Most arguments use the second type of data -- which creates an illusion of objectivity while actually incorporating lots of subjective, arbitrary and value laden elements.

C: Many types of real world phenomena are multi-dimensional. For example, the “size” of a person can be measured by height, weight, and other dimensions as well. To reduce a collection of measures to one number which measures the whole thing requires the development of an INDEX. Making an index requires many types of subjective decisions and judgments.

STUDENTS ACTION LIST:

FIRST STEP: Watch Lecture 2: Comparisons Part I: Indexing, Facts and Fiction. This is available from the link given below:

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

Make sure to download the TRANSCRIPT of the lecture ISM02Trans.docx. Keep this open as you watch the lecture. The Transcript is written record of what is spoken in the video, slide-by-slide. If you have difficulty understanding the words, you can read the transcript to see what was said.

SECOND STEP: Read the textbook chapter, entitled ISM02Lect.docx. This provides a detailed discussion of the material in the lecture.

THIRD STEP: Take the Lecture Comprehension Quiz (Lec02 Comprehension) on Quizstar. Login with your already setup student account and take the Quiz.

=== THESE three steps MUST be done prior to the LIVE discussion/class on Wednesday 19^th February. The remaining two steps are ADDITIONAL and MAY be done after the class. HOWEVER, it is recommended that these should also be done prior to the class for best understanding of the class.

FOURTH STEP: Download two files from the link given above: ISM02Lab.docx and ISM02 Lab.xslx  The first file provides you with exercises to do in EXCEL to arrive at hands on understanding of the material discussed in the lecture. The second provides the data needed to do the exercises and also provides some formulae and solutions to help you solve the problems. In this step, we may arrange a lab at PIDE for students having problems with completing the exercise. Attending lab is NOT COMPULSORY, and a schedule (some time convenient to students on Tuesday 18^th February 2014 will be scheduled.) Doing the lab exercises is COMPULSORY for all students, and is an essential part of the course. Those students who are not on campus and have difficulty with solving the exercises can post to the blog. You should go on to the fifth step ONLY when you are comfortable, and have acquired the  confidence that you can solve these exercises.

FIFTH STEP: Go to Quizstar and solve the quiz entitled “Computational Quiz on Lecture 2”. This will ask you to use EXCEL to solve problems stated there, which will be very similar to ones that you have solved in the FOURTH STEP.

 SIXTH STEP: Attend the Discussion Class on Wednesday 19^th February, 9:00 to 10:30am. ONLINE students should watch via live-streaming on web. They can then post their questions to the blog. The LIVE students should be able to ask questions in class. I will post answers on the web.

THIS WILL COMPLETE the second week of classes by Friday 21^st February.

THIRD WEEK: Saturday 22^nd Feb to Friday 28^th Feb 2014: Lecture 3 – Comparisons Part II.

Lecture 3:  Comparisons: Sorting, Ranking and Percentiles

When comparing quantities, it is often necessary to make adjustments for various factors. For example, in comparing Gross National Income across countries, it is necessary to make adjustments for population size, prices, and exchange rates. These adjustments often involve subjective elements, as we shall see. The basic operations of sorting, ranking and calculating percentiles are closely related and frequently used in making comparisons. These operations will be the subject of this lecture.

FIRST STEP: Watch Lecture 3: Comparisons Part II: Sorting, Ranking and Percentiles:

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

Keep TRANSCRIPT of the lecture (ISM03Trans.docx) open as you watch the lecture, and look at it if you have difficulty understanding the audio in the lecture.

SECOND STEP: Read the textbook chapter, entitled ISM03Lect.docx. This provides a detailed discussion of the material in the lecture.

THIRD STEP: Take the Lecture Comprehension Quiz (Lec03 Comprehension) on Quizstar. Login with your already setup student account and take the Quiz.

=== THESE three steps MUST be done prior to the LIVE discussion/class on Wednesday 26^th February. The remaining two steps are ADDITIONAL and MAY be done after the class. HOWEVER, it is recommended that these should also be done prior to the class for best understanding of the class.

FOURTH STEP: Download two files from the link given above: ISM03Lab.docx and ISM03 Lab.xslx  The first file provides you with exercises to do in EXCEL to arrive at hands on understanding of the material discussed in the lecture. The second provides the data needed to do the exercises and also provides some formulae and solutions to help you solve the problems. In this step, we may arrange a lab at PIDE for students having problems with completing the exercise. This is NOT COMPULSORY, and a schedule (some time convenient to students on Tuesday 25^th February 2014 will be scheduled.) Those students who are not on campus and have difficulty with solving the exercises can post to the blog. You should go on to the fifth step ONLY when you are comfortable, and have acquired the  confidence that you can solve these exercises.

FIFTH STEP: Go to Quizstar and solve the quiz entitled “Lec 03 Calculations Quiz”. This will ask you to use EXCEL to solve problems stated there, which will be very similar to ones that you have solved in the FOURTH STEP.

 SIXTH STEP: Attend the Discussion Class on Wednesday 26^th February, 9:00 to 10:30am. ONLINE students should watch via live-streaming on web. They can then post their questions to the blog. The LIVE students should be able to ask questions in class. I will post answers on the web.

THIS WILL COMPLETE the third week of classes by Friday 28^th February.