I can only speak from my 25 years of teaching statistics. In general I have
always had an attrition rate of about 20% or more. I have also found that when
the class is taught in a compressed way; e.g., a shortened summer session, the
attrition rate is usually higher. It looks like the topics covered are
appropriate, in fact in my regular classes I cover a couple of topics that you
didn't have listed.
Probability
Two-Way ANOVA
Additional Non-Parametrics including:
phi coefficient
Mann-Whitney U
Kruskal-Wallace H
I think that statistics is one of the courses that some students just know that
they "can't do" before they even start. It's math after all and we all know
that many of our students hate math, and besides, "What does statistics have to
do with psychology in the first place?"
I wouldn't be alarmed about the toll. It sounds like the requirements are
appropriate, but I'd like to know how many of your students do the required 2
hours of homework for each class hour. This is one course that really does
require the student keep up with the work and they treat it just like any other
class.
Bob W.
At 03:30 PM 7/14/99 -0400, Nancy Melucci wrote:
>HELLO OUT THERE!
>
>OK - here's a question I have been chewing on. I teach a 9 week accelerated
>undergraduate statistics class for nontraditional college students (PACE
>program). This is my second time through and the body count is rising. I
>was wondering if there are two many topics covered in too little time. This
>class seems much more intensive than the graduate school "baby stats" class I
>took my master's year -- but it's likely that that class was watered down
>some. This is what I cover in an essentially 1-semester class:
>
>Data types and representation
>Central tendency
>Variability (IQR, Percentiles & SD)
>z-scores and testing
>t-scores and testing
>ANOVA (one factor only)
>Chi Square
>Correlation and simple linear regression
>
>
