Day Three - Given over to Reading

I am one of those who believe that no matter how familiar the textbook and the subject matter are, it is important for the instructor to read the material over with fresh eyes.  I try to imagine what the opening chapters of the textbook looked like to the C-student last semester.  Sometimes, it is easier to identify that way the key concepts missed in the beginning that led to later failure.  So, with that in mind, I began to read chapters one, two and three today.

I think that this time, I will emphasize boxplots in the beginning.  The five pieces of information in the boxplot picture will reinforce the concepts of descriptive statistics and of distributions and probabilities at the same time.  This may better set up inference-making later on in the semester.  Getting the students to draw a curved space approximating the distribution pictured in the boxplot in terms of skewness and variance and outliers may be a useful exercise.

One of my first big jobs will be to establish the tempo of the course for the rest of the term.  We basically have two fifty-minute periods and a twenty-minute period back-to-back with a few rest breaks.  I already know that if I put the 20 minutes aside for in-class homework at the end of the class period, students will start thinking of excuses to leave early.  They can't do that quite so easily if they'll miss lecture by leaving early.  Therefore, it might be better to put the 20 minute period in the middle to complete practice assignments related to that covered in the first period.  This will give a chance for immediate feedback from students, reinforce discipline in doing assigned practice problems and allow for more immediacy in progress to the next concept.

I dislike have such a long break between classes from Thursday to Tuesday.  One thing that I could do would be to give assignments that I require to be turned in, say, by Sunday at midnight via email.  Since most students wait until the last minute to do such assignments, that will give me Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday - a better spread for learning.  Of course, the most disciplined (usually, but not always the best students, by the way) students will turn their assignments in on Thursday, but so be it.

So, back to reading.

Day Two: Before the First Day of Class - OneNote 2007

Once I became acquainted with Microsoft Office's OneNote 2007, I realized that this was the kind of powerful organizing tool that I needed to plan my courses, gather material and set up administrative records. All the Windows 'tree' system of file structure, shortcut cross references and copy functions across all formats have been resolved into a "tabbed spiral notebook" presentation. I love it. I am using it to create our BUSA 3101 course.

The first tab of my "statistics" notebook contains the academic calendar for the summer 2008 session, pasted onto the page in the exact format as presented on the registrar's web page. Tab two is an exact copy of the course listing in the on-line university catalog format, along with the listing for the prerequisite course for our BUSA 3101. (The prerequisite,by the way, is Math 1231 Introductory Statistics). Tab three is a copy of the syllabus - a Word document. On the syllabus page I have separately copied the four major learning outcomes for this course, with a note that this list of learning outcomes was approved by the discipline committee for our school of business. (I cannot unilaterally change this list). Tab four has my class roster in an exact copy of the format from the university system. Tab five has material introducing hypothesis testing for circumstances under which the population variance is known. (I introduced the subject to an MBA class this Spring as a guest lecturer.) Tab six will contain my lesson plans, the first page of that tab being the table of content.

In the next couple of days I'll be engaged in the fun part of all of this - the development of lesson plans, class schedules, homework assignments, exams, gradebooks, etc. Although this is the first time that I am teaching this course at Clayton State, I do have experience with similar courses as a graduate teaching assistant at Clemson University and teaching at Rockhurst University in Kansas City. The regular semester professor for this course here in the Business School of Clayton State has provided me with past syllabi and a good bit of advice based on his own experience. I have already found a few newspaper articles - one from the Wall Street Journal - that illustrate very well the business uses of statistical analysis. (Statistics don't lie; liars lie).

Speaking of statistics, my favorite stats joke: The definition of "statistician" - a number cruncher who did not have the personality to become an accountant. Hahahahahaha.

Day One: In the Beginning...

Summer school is a very busy time on campus for universities like Clayton State. For many of our students, the nine weeks from May 27th until July 28th represent a chance to get ahead of the trajectory toward graduation. For others, they are a chance to take a second shot at a decent grade in statistics. Whatever the initial stimulus, my job is to make sure the motivation stays high.

This section of BUSA 3101 Business Statistics filled up on the first day of preregistration back in April to the 40-student capacity of the classroom. Later, the assigned room was changed to allow for additional students. As of this evening, registration stands at 47. It takes an extraordinary effort to provide each student with the attention required for even the least complicated survey course; this would seem to be a challenge of a different magnitude for a course requiring the development of new skills as well as knowledge. Fortunately, I have no social life. This will work.

I want to make a record of this class from beginning to end - what works and what does not, what kinds of results we get. Perhaps my students will find this blog useful too.