Course Resources

Course Resources

I have set up this page as a wiki and I invite everyone to add to it, revise it, correct it, etc. all in the spirit of contributing to the common good. As a start, here are some categories I've set up:

Feel free to add more categories.

Lloyd's PowerPoints

 

Recommended Books

Lloyd's Recommended Textbook

No textbook is required for this course. However, if you want a full and detailed introduction to the concepts and principles covered in this course, this is the textbook I strongly recommend purchasing:

Spatz, Chris. (2011). Basic statistics: Tales of distributions (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage.

I really can't say enough about this textbook. Of all the textbooks I've read and used over the years, this is hands-down the most readable of them all. I had the good fortune to use the second edition over 30 years ago and still have it and consult it (I bought a more recent edition around 2000). Even when I was taking advanced statistics as part of my Ph.D., I would turn to this book over and over for reminders and refreshers of the basics. You will notice that I use several examples from this textbook in this course (giving credit each time). Although new copies are rather expensive (as are all college textbooks), you can find older editions for very little cost on Amazon, etc.
(Also there is a Spatz e-guide of his book that is not too expensive on Amazon.co.uk that can be used with Kindle or iPad)

 

Another Book Lloyd Recommends

If you want an entertaining and informative book about the history of statistics, I recommend the following:

Salsburg, David. (2001). The lady tasting tea: How statistics revolutionized science in the twentieth century. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

I also enjoyed how Salsburg introduces and describes the prominent people from the history of statistics. You get a good sense of the personalities of people like Karl Pearson, R.A. Fisher, William Gosset, Francis Galton, Florence David, John Tukey, and Thomas Bayes.

Other Online Courses

Carnegie-Mellon University's Open Learning Initiative Links to an external site.

This is a wonderful resource for learning a variety of topics. The link I've provided is to the general catalog of courses, as I thought everyone would like to see the range of topics covered (not just statistics). Scroll down the and click on "Probability & Statistics."

Khan Academy - Probability & Statistics Links to an external site.

Coursera - Statistics One Links to an external site.

Offered by Princeton University; Statistics One is a comprehensive yet friendly introduction to statistics.

StatLearning: Statistical Learning Links to an external site.

Stanford University


Introduction to Statistics: Descriptive Statistics Links to an external site.

UC-Berkeley

Intro to Statistics Links to an external site.

Making Decisions Based on Data

Useful YouTube Videos

Statistics 101 with Brandon Foltz Links to an external site.

Lloyd highly recommends this video series. Foltz does an excellent job of explaining a wide range of statistical concepts and principles.

Statisticsfun by Links to an external site.David Longstreet Links to an external site.

Joy of Stats from OpenLearn  - http://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats-on/tv/the-joy-stats Links to an external site.  This is an interesting series of video shorts (first shown as a BBC documentary) presented by Professor Hans Rosling.  (posted by Charlotte Ates, 7/7/14)

YouTube Tip

YouTube offers a HTML5 player (in addition to their Flash-based) that you can turn on by going here and select HTML5 for default player:

https://www.youtube.com/html5 Links to an external site.

This option allows you to watch the videos at 1.5 or even 2 times the normal speed. Unfortunately, if you choose this method, you cannot have better video resolution than 360 pixels.

Other Online Resources

Statsoft Electronic Statistics Textbook: http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/ Links to an external site.
This is a good resource for a quick review of different types of analyses.

Saw this article's headline and first sentence, so thought I would share.  http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/money/investing/lies-damn-lies-and-investing-20130805-2r8j4.html

Collaborative Statistics Links to an external site.Illowsky and Dean, a Creative Commons OER (open educational resource). Lots of great detail, videos, examples, etc.

Other Statistics packages/extensions - make sure they will work on your system/ios before trying to install and remember to set an install point in Windows before installing.

Open Office

Excel Resources

Lessons

http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/math/stats/ Links to an external site.

Books- ebook

Probability and statistics http://wiki.stat.ucla.edu/socr/index.php/EBook Links to an external site.

Excel Tips & Tricks

[If you know some good shortcuts or techniques, please share them here.]

  • In Lloyd's video Computing an Analysis of Variance at about 29'53'' we begin to compute group averages. Before we had been computing the group Ns using an excel function called COUNTIF. There is an analogous function to compute the group averages, namely AVERAGEIFS. To use that function, you will have to specify a range for the criteria and a range for the values used to compute the mean. (This formular should be working if you replace the proper criterium: AVERAGEIFS(C$27:C$38;B$27:B$38;1Or2Or3).
  •  I find it faster to use the Control-S shortcut to save files in Excel.

How to create a bell curve-like chart in Excel (aka a frequency polygon, similar to a histogram)

Looked into how to create a frequency distribution of scores with Excel, a la a normal (bell) curve:

http://www.scu.edu/training/tipsandtricks.cfm?c=6783 Links to an external site.

This was produced by the Technology Training staff at Santa Clara University. (It was a little confusing at first to figure out, so beware!)

 

Free replacement for Analysis Toolpak for Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011

In the 'Computing a t Test for a Correlated-Samples Design' video lecture, Prof. Rieber mentioned that the Data Analysis Toolpak is no longer available free of charge for Excel for Mac 2011.

Fortunately, an alternative is available. AnalystSoft's StatPlus:mac LE is a free replacement of the Analysis Toolpak. It is compatible with Excel 2004, 2008 and 2011. A Pro version is also available but it seems that the free variant has most of the functions that were available in the Toolpak.

The Solver tool also becomes available after installing Service Pack 1 for Office for Mac 2011. Here's the link to the Microsoft support page that shows how to install the Service Pack and enable Solver from the Add-Ins menu: What happened to the Data Analysis Toolpak or Solver in Excel for Mac 2011? Links to an external site.

Interestingly, on the same page, Microsoft is recommending AnalystSoft's StatPlus:mac LE (a competing product) as replacement for the Toolpak.

And this is the link for downloading StatPlus:mac LE Links to an external site.

I installed both Solver and StatPlus:mac LE on a colleague's MacBook Air and conducted an ANOVA test of the quiz values just to make sure everything works correctly. When it runs for the first time, StatPlus shows a message box recommending an update to the Pro version, but that goes away for good with a single check.

 

Fun With Statistics:

This is a great discussion on causation versus correlation and how impossible it is to know anything for certain. Planet Money Ep 453. Links to an external site.

Did you ever wonder how regression lines might be applied to your favorite TV show? Well, wonder no longer. Courtesy of io9 Links to an external site..

For fun with correlation versus causation, check out Spurious Correlations Links to an external site..

 

Non-American Examples of Using Statistics

Yes, Lloyd's course examples of statistics are somewhat "American-centric." (Who really cares about American baseball, anyway.) But, no worries, you can add your examples here! Perhaps you know of a good link of how statistics is used in your country or community. Here's the place to share. See if you can explain the statistics principle at work in 25 words or less. Extra points if the example involves an accordion.