INFERENTIAL STATISTICS AND RESEARCH DESIGN SYLLABUS - CPY
511
Summer I 2008 (20091)
Section 101: MTWH 4:30pm - 6:35pm; 283 Old Main
Professor: Dr. Robert S. Ryan
Office: 385 Old Main
Office hours: Drop in at my office, 385 Old Main, any time. If you are going out of your way to make a trip, call me at 683-4457 to check if I'm in, so you won't miss me.
Phone: 610-683-4457
E-mail: rryan@kutztown.edu
Website: http://faculty.kutztown.edu/rryan
Required Text: Thorne, B. M. & Giesen, J. M. (2003). Statistics For the Behavioral Sciences. NY: McGraw Hill.
This syllabus provides a summary of Classroom Policies. Please see the complete statement of classroom policies on my web page.
Course objectives: Part of the class time will be devoted to either reading and interpeting journal articles that provide examples or to practice problems, so that not all of the class time is spent on mathematical theory. The ultimate goal is that students will be able to read research papers that describe experimental and non-experimental studies with understanding. They will learn how to conduct several kinds of inferential tests, and will practice conducting them in order to gain hands on experience.
Students will:
Academic Honesty: It is my intention to uphold the academic honesty policy of Kutztown University and all other student conduct standards as described in the online student handbook, "The Key". "Academic dishonesty involves any attempt to obtain academic credit or influence the grading process by means unauthorized by the course instructor". It is the responsibility of students to be aware of this policy and abide by it at all times.
Students with Disabilities: The Office of Human Diversity, located in 220 Stratton Administration Center, provides many services for students with disabilities. If you have a documented disability please let me know as soon as possible so that I may provide whatever accommodation you require.
Attendance: Attendance at all classes is necessary in order to do well on tests. If a test is missed, a grade of zero will be assigned. In order to be allowed to make up the test, there must be an acceptable reason for missing the test. To see what is considered acceptable, see class policies at http://faculty.kutztown.edu/rryan/policies.htm.
Communication: Kutztown email is now the standard means of communication between faculty and students. If I need to contact the whole class (especially important in the winter) I will send an email to the class list. The class list contains the Kutztown email address of everyone registered for the course. You should check your email regularly. If you do not wish to use your Kutztown email, then you need to set it to forward to whatever email you actually use. Go to KU's web based iPlanet email system at https://mail.kutztown.edu/. Enter your user ID and password for your Kutztown email. Click "Options", then "Settings", then, in the Mail Forwarding box, type your preferred email address, and click "Save Changes". If you have not activated your KU email, then you need to do so by following the instructions at http://www.kutztown.edu/infotech/email.pdf.
Grading: The grade for the course will come from several tests. Tests may consist of any combination of objective (multiple choice; true/false) and subjective (short answer; essay) questions. Grades come from these sources only. There is no extra credit beyond the research extra credit described below.
If there is some circumstance that interferes with your ability to earn a good grade without extra help, feel free to discuss it with me so that I can provide as much help as possible. However, in order to avoid compromising my objecivity, please do not mention the consequences of your not receiving the grade you want. I assume that all my students want to earn as good a grade as possible.
Research Extra Credit: Peer reviewed research journals present detailed descriptions of studies that researchers have conducted to provide evidence about the principles that we study in the course. Therefore, reading such an article and turning in a report summarizing it is a good way to learn about the evidence behind those principles. You can earn additional percentage points on your final course grade by reading and summarizing such research studies. Each summary is worth one percentage point, and you can do up to three of them.
I have placed on e-reserves at the Rorhback Library a set of papers for extra credit reports. To access them, go to the library website. Follow the links to e-reserves. Search by instructor. Select Ryan, then select PSY 011 (they are listed under General Psychology because the General Psych instructors also use those papers as an alternative to the research participation requirement). Finally, click on PSY011 for Ryan for this semester and select a paper.
If you want to use a paper that you select yourself, then you must show me in advance a copy of the article that you want to summarize for my approval in order to ensure that it is from a peer reviewed journal and that it is about a principle that we studied. Alternatively, you may ask for my help in finding such an article. I can also give you advice regarding how to write the summary. There is also information on my web site about writing the report (click here for the information).
The report must be turned in to me no later than Thursday, June 19th.
The grade on any individual test or project will be shown as a percentage grade. It can be converted to a letter grade according to the following breakdown:
98% - 100% = A+
93% - 97% = A
90% - 92% = A-
82% - 89% = B+
73% - 81% = B
65% - 72% = B-
60% - 64% = C
< 60 = F
The overall grade is the percentage of points achieved out of the total possible points. There is no curving.
Schedule of Topics