Course Introduction



MATH. 115: Introduction to Probability and Statistics

 

Instructor: Ira Lansing

Telephone: 415-485-9531 (California)

E-mail: ira.lansing@marin.edu

Office hours: (Pacific Time): see schedule

Web master: The College of Marin's Information Technology group oversees the servers and software that run and support some aspects of this course. They can be contacted by e-mail (see below) or at 415-883-2211 x8181. 
Any technical difficulties associated with the ALEKS® web site can be answered through their web site at this location.

Prerequisites: Intermediate Algebra. This is equivalent to the second year of high school algebra. Proof of fulfilling the prerequisite will be required (report card or transcript showing "C" or better in Intermediate Algebra, its equivalent or higher). This prerequisite cannot be waived, although you may test out of it. Contact the College of Marin's Testing Center to arrange for a placement test. Students not meeting the prerequisite will not be allowed to continue in this course.  In addition, the instructional component of this class (done through ALEKS) will assess your knowledge of the basic and essential mathematical skills necessary for this statistics class.  If you do not have mastery of these selected prerequisite topics, you will be directed to a review section of the course.  This review must be successfully completed before you can begin the statistics portion of the class.  In other words, proof alone will not be enough—you must also remember some of what you knew!

Textbook: The materials in this course are primarily on line, and consist of the ALEKS learning system.  You must buy a standalone User's Guide for ALEKS (the "plain" Mathematics, not Business Statistics, one semester version; 6 weeks if in a summer session).  This contains one of the codes you will need to enter the instructional web site.  You may see this guide on line here to see if the style of the course may be of interest to you (no code contained in the online version).  The College of Marin Book Store has this available with the access code, as may other online textbook sites.  In addition, it is valuable to have a statistics textbook as a reference and additional source of explanation.  You may use any introductory statistics text you might have, but the Book Store sells, and the on campus classes use the following:
Introductory Statistics , 9th Edition, Neil A. Weiss, Pearson/Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc. This may be purchased directly from the College of Marin Book Store. It can be bought separately or bundled with the CD-ROM described below.

Supplemental Materials: Why Don't They Just Say That?! A Simpler Way to Understand Something That Might Not Seem So Simple© (four parts) by Ira Lansing.  Reading a textbook is not the same as talking to someone.  Now you can have the simple explanation given to you that the text cannot.  Why Don’t They Just Say That?! is series of four short booklets that explains to you in basic terms, with clear examples and illustrations, exactly what you need to know to understand the material.  Presented to you with an emphasis on keywords and concepts that will allow you to do the homework and exam questions in your class, each booklet covers a  topic from the course.  Designed to be used with materials from your class, Why Don’t They Just Say That?! is available exclusively from the author.  Each booklet may be purchased and separately ordered as a convenient PDF document for your personal use.  See this site for more details.  Disclosure: the instructor benefits from the sale of this item.

ActivStats CD-ROM by Paul Velleman. This is an interactive CD that provides simulations, practice quizzes and a commercial statistical software package called DataDesk. This CD is highly recommended. See ActivStats Online for more information.
In addition, there is an optional manual, Learning Data Analysis with DataDesk, that can assist you in learning the software if you so choose; although some instruction is included on the CD.

It is important in any distance learning course that students do not become isolated and also have numerous resources available to them.  Using the supplemental materials is strongly encouraged.

You must use DataDesk, other statistical software, statistically capable spreadsheet software or have a hand-held or computer-based calculator with statistical capabilities (non-graphing is OK). Learn to use it on your own or acquire Why Don't They Just Say That, Part 4 by Ira Lansing, available directly from this site.

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Course Work: Most parts of this class are self-paced, but must be completed within the time frame of the current single semester.  Everyone starts on the first day and everyone will be graded on the work they have completed by the last day of instruction in the semester.  It is possible to finish the course before the end of the semester, but you may not extend beyond this semester.  Within the semester students have the opportunity to move through the topics in an order of their choosing, although this may be restricted if one concept has another as a prerequisite.  For example, you cannot learn about standard deviation until you have learned about means.  Your tests will occur based on when you have completed a certain amount of material corresponding to your selected topics, and this could be at different times for each and every student.  The ALEKS system makes the determination of when you are ready to be assessed.  Consequently, this course involves considerable reading and writing. The ability to clearly communicate your ideas in a well-constructed, written form is essential to success in this class.  In addition, how much time you will need to spend on the material will also vary with your abilities.  Assuming you have had no previous statistics course, you should expect to spend 6-10 hours per week (just like an on campus class) with the materials.

There is a proctored exam for this course.  Photo ID is required to take the proctored exam.  More information will be sent to students once they have successfully enrolled in the course.

The majority of learning for this class takes place in  ALEKS.  Take the short guided tour to get an idea of how ALEKS works.  Testing, or "assessment" as it is called in ALEKS, happens at different times for each student.  Here is how it is described in the User's Guide:
The ALEKS assessment uses open-ended problems (no multiple choice).  It is an adaptive assessment; that is, problem types are selected based on all the previous answers the student has given.  It is impossible to predict which types of problems will appear, or in what order.  Moreover, the problems themselves are generated algorithmically, with randomly selected numerical values. ... There is no reason for a student who has begun using ALEKS to cheat on a "progress" assessment, as this will simply cause the system to suggest problems that are too difficult, and thus hinder the student's own work.
So, how are you graded in this class?  See below.

 


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Grading Policy: The ALEKS system and the instructor do not expect perfection.  Your grade is not based on how many correct answers you provide, but on how many topics you complete and have assessed, including the score from a proctored exam.  There are about 99 topics in the probability and statistics part of the course (19 prerequisite review topics and 80 probability and statistics topics).  You will receive the following grade if you complete and assess the corresponding number of topics after your proctored test score is deducted (more information will be provided on this once you are in the course).  Note that +/- grades are not given by this instructor in this course.

"A": 95%-100% of the topics completed and assessed
"B": 88%-94% of the topics completed and assessed
"C": 80%-87% of the topics completed and assessed
"D": 71%-79% of the topics completed and assessed
"F": fewer than 71% of the topics and assessed

Remember, while the grading scale shows you must finish 95% of the material to get an "A", it does not require that you get 95% or better on the assessments.  ALEKS determines if you know enough to go on to the next topic, and this may not require perfect understanding, or even A-level understanding.  You just must demonstrate the necessary skills.  Similarly, it is possible to pass this course ("C") without having completed, and presumably not even knowing, 20% of the topics.
 
The course may be taken for pass/no pass, with a passing grade being the equivalent of "C" or better. The student must make this choice through their MyCoM web portal.  There is a deadline for requesting a P/NP, and after the fourth week of the semester your grading option cannot be changed.

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