1. Required Email Contact: You will be required to send me an email from our course Bb site as well as respond to an email from your ACC Google student email account in order to get credit for this course. Check Bb for instructions on what specific information to email me. For ACC Google email help: (http://www.austincc.edu/google/).

**ALL EMAILS YOU SEND ME MUST ORIGINATE FROM WITHIN Bb!**

1. Exams: There will be four exams. The exams will include multiple choice and calculations. The final exam is not comprehensive. Each exam will be worth 100 points. Exam dates are tentative and subject to change at my discretion. Exams will be administered in-class and require a green scantron. See policy for missed exams.           
2. Homework: Students will have homework for each instructional unit.  The homework will help students to review the information covered in the lectures and in the textbook. Also, the homework will serve as a basis for providing additional information not covered yet in the lectures.  Homework will be due every Tuesday at the beginning of class and returned at the beginning of class on Thursday.  New homework sets will be posted in Bb by Thursday at noon. NO LATE HOMEWORK WILL BE ACCEPTED. The correct answers to the homework questions will be posted in public for you to review your work.  For this reason, students must do their homework and come to class ready to participate in homework related discussions.  They should use this information to check their answers and make the appropriate revisions.  Furthermore,students should time themselves when doing the homework to get an idea of how long it may take them to answer similar questions on the tests. Each homework set is worth three points. Students who complete and turn in 80% of homework sets assigned will receive an additional five-point bonus.
3. Attendance: An attendance sheet will be passed at the beginning of each class. Each attendance class is worth 1.5 points. Students who attend at least 90% of classes will receive an additional five-point bonus. Upon the 8th absence I reserve the right to withdraw a student from the course.Seven absences are equivalent to missing approximately 25% of the classes. If students are absent from a class, it is their responsibility to obtain notes and handouts. Students should inquire with fellow classmates prior to asking me for missed materials. Students are responsible for ALL information and materials given in class even if they are absent. Absences: Any absences will result in a zero for any attendance points assigned during class. Excused absences from exams must be properly and officially documented and will be verified in order to be eligible for a make-up exam. Excused absences may include illness, emergency or death of a close family member (i.e. parent, grandparent, spouse or child).
4. Blackboard: All material in our class that is not in the textbook can be found on Blackboard. Be prepared to check our Blackboard site at least weekly for homework sets, important announcements, updates, instructions and assistance.

COURSE Grade Scale

Required Text/Software:

Ritchey, Ferris J. The Statistical Imagination: Elementary Statistics for the Social Sciences. 2nd Edition (2007).

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072943041/student_view0/index.html

Course Description: This course is intended for students in disciplines that require the knowledge of statistical methods used in behavioral and social science research.  The course covers (1) measurement scales, (2) frequency tables and graphs, (3) measures of central tendency and variability, (4) transformed scores, (5) normal distributions, (6) sampling distributions, (7) hypothesis testing, (8) z test, Student t test, and ANOVA-F test, (9) chi square and other nonparametric statistics, (10) correlation and regression, and (11) brief introduction to multivariate statistics.  Emphasis is on the conceptual understanding of statistics within the context of research and the interpretation of statistical results.  Relevant research topics are discussed and linked to the appropriate statistical procedures.  Calculations are required.  This course has prerequisites.

Course Learning Objectives/Outcomes: Students are expected to demonstrate a full understanding of important concepts and methods covered in class and in the textbook and handouts.  By the end of the semester, students should be able to (1) recognize the correct definitions and applications of statistical concepts and methods used in behavioral and social science research, (2) recognize the correct definitions and applications of relevant research methods and designs, (3) identify the appropriate statistical analyses for given research problems/questions and sets of data, (4) explain why their choices are appropriate making reference to relevant research and measurement issues, and (5) perform the statistical analyses and explain/interpret the results.