Course Syllabus

  Course Description

Statistics can be confusing: symbols, Greek letters, very large and very small numbers, and how to interpret all
of this can leave a person feeling cold and disengaged—even fearful and resentful.

Having a healthy relationship with statistics can make life a whole lot easier. We are constantly faced with an
onslaught of data and claims about it—from news articles, to Facebook and blog posts, casual and
professional conversations, reports at our workplace, advertising, and claims from politicians and public
officials. How can we process that information, make sense of it, evaluate truth claims, and put ourselves in a
position to act on the information? One of the most important ways is by befriending statistics and
consistently using statistical ways of thinking.

The purpose of this course, then, is to help you develop a functional, satisfying, and useful relationship with
statistics. To achieve that goal, we will take a non-technical approach—you will learn how statistics work and
why they are so helpful in evaluating the world of information around us. You will learn about the logic of
statistical thinking and the concepts (rather than the mathematical details and probability theory) that guide
statistical inferences and conclusions.

You do not need to be a math whiz to take this course. If you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide (or just
be able to use a calculator to do that!), you will be more than able to handle what will happen as this
relationship develops. We’ll do all of this using entertaining examples related to real-life situations we all
encounter in everyday life.

  Summary Topics Covered

● Levels of Measurement
● Central Tendency
● Dispersion
● Inferential Statistics
● Hypothesis Testing
● Chi-Square Test
● T-Tests
● Analysis of Variance
● Regression
● Correlation
 
  

  Course Goals​
By successfully completing this course, students will learn to:
● Select appropriate statistical tests for data according to the levels of measurement.
● Perform basic calculations to determine statistical significance.
● Use standard methods of representation to summarize data.
● Interpret and assess the credibility of basic statistics.

  Required Materials

Instructional Content: All of the needed learning materials are posted in the course on edX. This content is
accessible under the “Courseware” tab. Common student questions and answers are available at the​ ​
edX
Frequently Asked Questions page​ .

Multimedia: A variety of multimedia is used in the course, including audio, video, and animation files. See the
edX Frequently Asked Questions page​ for information on supported browsers. Multimedia content will also
have a text-base alternative for anyone who cannot access the multimedia for any reason.

♥
Textbook(s): There is no textbook - yea! ​

  Course Support

Students Helping Students: If you need some help, or feel strong enough to help others, there are a number
of ways you can reach out to other students. In the course in edX, there is a Stats Help discussion forum
where you can ask any kind of stats question to get some help. Don’t forget that we also have an ​ I “Heart”
Stats Facebook page​where you can join up with others and talk about class.

Technical Help: There is also a Technical Help discussion forum, so if you are trying to view something or
submit an assignment and you are having trouble, help is just a few steps away. Post a message describing the
problem and someone will respond within 36 hours.

  Assignments
In every module you find three kinds of problems.
1. Check Your Knowledge questions: these immediately follow Professor Dan’s light board videos. These
are simple concept questions that should give you an idea about the big concepts and show you
whether you are ready to move on or maybe should watch the video again.
2. Practice questions: these are presented after all the instructional material and give you a chance to
work some problems and make sure you know what you should do and are doing it correctly.
 
  

3. Homework questions: while these count for credit toward formal “course completion” and they are
graded, you can work the homework problems as many times as you would like to make sure you
understand fully what to do and how to do it. Homework is graded as complete or incomplete.

Special note about homework: students must get a score greater than 0% in order to be considered
“complete”. We hope that you will work the problems as many times as needed to master the concept and
get the correct answer.

4. At the end of the course, there will be a final exam. This is a required assignment for formal course
completion.

  Course Policies

  Grading Structure

Type of Contribution Total Points Points per Number of Assignments

Assignment to Final Grade Possible Assignment

Check Your 0% 0 0 A small set of questions

Knowledge follows each of Professor
Questions Dan’s video presentations.

Practice 0% 0 0 A set of practice problems is

Problems provided in each module of
the course.

Homework 25% varies varies

Final Exam 75% 100 n/a 1

Grading Scale

A 100-90

B 89-80

C 79-70

Certification earned with 69 or higher.

D 69-60

F 59-00

 
  

  Make-up Policy
Due to the structure of this course, no late work will be accepted after the official course conclusion - June 17.
We do recommend that you follow the course calendar as closely as possible to keep in line with the majority
of students and to get the most out of the live sessions with faculty.

  Communication Policy

Professors and Teaching Assistants are dedicated to responding to discussion forums and posts made to
Facebook and Twitter within 36 hours. However, it should be noted that the same is NOT true of email. Please
only use the communication tools established in edX, Facebook, and Twitter to send communication about I
“Heart” Stats.

Students are expected to communicate in a professional and friendly manner. Offensive or inappropriate
language is subject to the policies of edX and may result in removal from the course.

  Original Work Policy

Each student is responsible for ethically contributing to the course. Each student’s submissions in this course
must be an accurate and true representation of his or her own work.