To: Math 1342 teachers
From: Mary Parker
Date: August 21, 2006
Topics:
· StatsPortal Training
· Our department’s recommendation about StatsPortal
· Information about StatsPortal in your first-day handout
· Background Information about StatsPortal
· Suggested homework assignments
· Textbooks
· Errata Sheet
· Revised Math Manual pages, revised MINITAB Orientation, etc.
· MINITAB for purchase
· Posting of additional material in StatsPortal
StatsPortal Training:
Even though the StatsPortal training from the publisher focused on how to make assignments, deal with the gradebook, and add material, we don't actually expect you to do any of those things in StatsPortal. You can if you'd like to, but it is not required, and we don't even necessarily recommend it. As we make clear in the Math Manual, one of the major goals in this course is for students to learn to communicate about statistics, and that means writing out conclusions and interpretations, etc. Multiple choice questions are not enough for that. Read that part of the Manual carefully.
I must admit that I saw some things in the training that make me think that possibly the system here will be better for accomplishing those goals in an electronic format than I thought possible. But we'll have to see, as we go along.
Each of you who completes the StatsPortal training from WH Freeman will receive ACC professional development credit. The trainers from Freeman will be providing the list to us in early September.
Our department’s recommendation about StatsPortal:
What we DO expect you to encourage the students to use in StatsPortal this semester is
· access to the e-book, with more complete answers to the odd-numbered problems than those in the back of the book.
· access to the MINITAB Manual, so the students don't have to buy it separately. (Can print it or just view it online if they'd like.)
· access to the Study Guide, so the students don't have to buy it separately.
· easy access to CrunchIt (a web-based statistical software program) through the e-book.
· easy access to the applets through the e-book.
· access to tutorials for students who need extra help outside of class.
Mentioning StatsPortal in your first-day handout:
Include this information and URL in your first-day handout in the “Required materials” section, right after the textbook. (Put your specific course PIN instead of the blank here.)
To sign up for StatsPortal, you’ll need
· The Course PIN for this class ________________
· The access code under the CD in the back of your textbook.
· Your email address
· The location and time of your class.
To begin the process to sign up for StatsPortal, go to http://www.austincc.edu/mparker/statsportal.htm
Background information about StatsPortal
StatsPortal is new with this edition of the text, and is still in the “testing” mode. The publishing company is offering a few schools across the nation an opportunity to have their students use it this semester in this testing mode. We chose to do this because we believe that the resources in it will be helpful to the students. For one thing, since the MINITAB Manual is available here in printable electronic form, the students won’t have to buy it separately, as in previous years. There are many additional resources.
Suggested homework assignments
The suggested homework assignments will be, as before, mostly odd-numbered problems. Students will have access to much more comprehensive answers to these than in previous editions. So you will need to make a decision about how many problems you intend to grade to see whether students can do problems without complete answers, and then be sure to assign enough even-numbered problems in addition to, or instead of, the suggested odd-numbered problems.
Here are the first four chapters: (More to be provided on course website in the next week or so.)
Chapter 1: [1.1, 1.3, 1.5, 1.7, 1.9, 1.11, 1.13-1.22], 1.23, 1.27, 1.29, 1.31, 1.32, 1.39, 1.41, 1.44(M), 1.45(T)
Chapter 2: [2.1, 2.3, 2.5, 2.7, 2.9(T), 2.12, 2.13-2.22], 2.23, 2.29, 2.31, 2.35, 2.37, 2.41(T), 2.43, 2.45(T)
Chapter 3: [3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, 3.7, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13, 3.14, 3.15-3.24], 3.25, 3.27 3.29, 3.30, 3.31, 3.35, 3.37, 3.39, 3.41, 3.45, 3.49
Chapter 4: [4.1, 4.3, 4.4&4.5(M), 4.7, 4.8ac(M), 4.9, 4.10(M), 4.11(M), 4.12-4.21], 4.23, 4.25(M), 4.26, 4.27(M), 4.29, 4.31, 4.35, 4.37(T), 4.41(M)
Textbooks
Obviously, all the students have to buy new textbooks this semester. Some students will ask, of course, if they can use an old edition instead. The answer is no. Not only are the problem sets different, but there is enough difference in the explanations that students using the old edition would miss some important explanations.
Errata Sheet
In any first printing of a new book or a new edition of a book, there probably will be some typographical errors. We will be maintaining an Errata sheet on the web at http://www.austincc.edu/mparker/1342/errata.htm
Please ask your students to report any errors they find to you, and, if you agree these are errors, then report them to me at . Feel free to give the students the URL to look to see what errors have been reported, but don’t encourage them to send their reports of errors directly to me. (I have enough students to deal with in my three classes!)
Revised Math Manual pages, revised MINITAB Orientation, etc.
Now that I have seen the text and StatsPortal, I have made a few revisions in the Math Manual pages. And I revised the MINITAB Orientation substantially about a month ago. Find all of those from http://www.austincc.edu/mparker/1342/tf/instr/
Summary of changes:
Math Manual:
Student handout portion:
· Added the chapter called “Data Ethics” to the calendar.
· Changed the statement under “Required Technology” about MINITAB to be more explicit about where students can go to use MINITAB. Includes a link to a list of computer labs, locations, and hours.
· Includes information about how to sign up for StatsPortal.
Instructor portion:
· Added some discussion of how the new Manual describes how to use Version 15. (top, page 187)
Minitab Orientation:
· Very substantial changes a month ago from the document of last year.
· The datasets for the new text aren’t in folders by chapter, so I changed that reference today.
Minitab for purchase:
The bookstore has no packages with MINITAB included. That is due to a mistake at the publisher’s warehouse. The publisher is helping me deal with this for the Distance Learning class, but none will be available for the classroom sections. Students in the classroom sections who want MINITAB will need to rent it from http://www.minitab.com/ . Notice that they can get a 30-day free download. (That can only be done once on any one computer.) Many students find it convenient to use the 30-day free download starting about Chapter 4 in our syllabus. That will get them through the regression part of the course, which uses MINITAB most extensively.
Posting of additional materials in StatsPortal:
The publisher tells me that they will post chapters 7-12 by Labor Day, 13-18 about Oct. 1, and the remainder about Nov. 1.
I noticed that they don’t have any chapters of the MINITAB Manual posted in StatsPortal yet. I will post the chapters on our website http://www.austincc.edu/mparker/1342/tf/ as needed if they aren’t appearing in StatsPortal in time. The materials through Chapter 5 are there now.