BUSI 275 Fall 2011 Homepage

Instructor

Dr. Sean Ho
twu@seanho.com
Hours: TR 4-5pm, NWB 231
TA: Anne Schober, Anne.Schober@mytwu.ca
Hours: T 1:10-2:10 Reading Room
busi275.seanho.com
Class location: CanIL 115 Lab
(Section A) TR 11:40-13:00
(Section B) TR 14:35-15:50

Syllabus

General course information: objectives, prerequisites, text, policies, etc.

Schedule

Lectures and assignment due dates (subject to revision as the semester proceeds).

Lectures

Lecture notes in PDF format.

Homework

HW assignments (will be updated as the semester proceeds).

Term Project

Details on your term project, which includes a proposal, in-class presentation, and final paper.

Textbook Data

Sample datasets from the textbook, also used in lecture. These are copyrighted.
Also see the textbook's companion website, including Excel 2007 tutorials, self-study quizzes, and the PHStat2 software.

Excel Tips

Tips and tricks for using Excel, will be updated as the semester progresses.

Practise Questions

Practise questions for the midterm exam on Thu 20 Oct and the final exam on Sat 10 Dec.

Resources

Courses

I have taught similar statistics courses before; you may find the old exams (with solutions) useful: MATH108 (for Nursing) and MATH102 (for Science). A link at the bottom takes you to previous years.

Software

We use Excel in class not because it is the most easy-to-use, cheap, or powerful statistical software (far from it!), but because it is easily accessible and still widely used in the business world.
  • Download the PHStat2 Excel add-on used by the textbook. Also see the PHStat homepage.
    PHStat is installed in the classroom; go to Start Menu, Programs, Business. It should then appear under the "Add-Ins" menu in Excel.
  • For Mac users and others who can't get the Analysis ToolPak for Excel, try StatPlus:mac from AnalystSoft; there is a free LE version for download.
  • For help and tips with Excel, Bill Jelen's "Mr. Excel" site is useful.
  • Excel does have some problems when used for statistics; see Practical Stats and David Heiser.
  • Excel is not the only spreadsheet software out there; you can try the free office suite LibreOffice, or even Google Docs (although their regression tools are pretty limited without using add-ons).
  • The social and health science folks often rely on IBM's SPSS, however it is not that easy to use, and is pretty expensive (although TWU has a site-license).
  • Stata is cheaper than SPSS and has a growing following; I've never used it myself.
  • SAS is the old, established industry leader, especially in financial services and business analytics. But they are (IMHO) way overpriced and a bit slow to embrace change. (I do hear they're a great company to work for, though!)
  • For those not shy of a command-line interface, there is also the very powerful (and free) R project. This is what I use personally; it is the de-facto standard amongst academic statisticians, and as such constantly has the most cutting-edge techniques added to its enormous ecosystem. R is not just software; it's a community!

Datasets

Some resources to find data for your term project:

Daily Devos

Every class starts with a short devotional from the Bible, to help keep everything in perspective!