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Assessment and Evaluation of Health Fitness Parameters
HFIT-565
Class Meeting Thursdays 5:30 - 8:00
Fall Semester 2008
Dr. Marc Schaeffer
McCabe Hall 227
Tel: 885-6277
Office hours Tu 3:00 - 5:00 or by appointment
If you are reading this page in hard copy, please note that this a HTML document containing a number of hyperlinks to supplemental pages. This page will be updated regularly to allow access to additional information. Please check back frequently for important information. The date at the bottom will indicate when this page was last modified. If you are reading this in hard copy, you can find this URL at:
http://www.american.edu/academic.depts/cas/health/dhf/HFIT565/syllabus.html
Hyperlinks are represented by text that is in blue, underlined blue, or sometimes blinking blue. Red text is for emphasis or for very important content. To some extent, your proprietary browser and browser default settings will affect the manner in which hyperlinks are displayed.
This course is a survey of applied statistical concepts used in the evaluation of health promotion programs. The focus will be on learning the basics of tabulating research data for analysis, the proper application of principal statistical tests, and appropriate display techniques for the explanation and interpretation of research results.
During the course, a number of prominent variables examined in health promotion evaluation will be used as practical examples. Examples of these variables include, but are not limited to health risk, absenteeism, productivity, and health care use.
REQUIRED TEXT
Intro Stats (2nd edition) by Richard De Veaux & Paul F. Velleman, Pearson Addison Wesley, Boston, 2006; in the AU Bookstore it is approximately $96.00 for a used copy and approximately $127.00 for a new copy. Beyond the AU bookstore, this book is widely available from online bookstores such as amazon.com where the range in price for used to new is from about $60 to $104.
Any single Excel self-help guide book (e.g., Running Microsoft Excel 2000 [$28.00]; Microsoft Excel 2002: Step by Step [$25.00]; Excel 2003 for Windows for Dummies [$16.00]) is highly recommended, but not required. Prices are approximate new book prices at amazon.com. Even if your computer is NOT running Office 2000 or Office XP (e.g., Excel 97, Excel 95, etc.) these books are still very relevant. Also, highly recommended, particularly if you have little experience with Excel, are the AU instructor led and computer based courses free to students and staff.
REPRINTS
There will be a few reprints that are required reading for this course and these will be distributed according to the Course Syllabus.
COMPUTING
A desktop or laptop computer will be REQUIRED for completing most, if not all assignments and the two course exams. If you do not own a computer, there are scores of computers in student computing laboratories on campus. If you feel that you need to enhance your computing skills, there are several courses offered in a computer-based format, as well as in a classroom by AU Technology . If you are fairly facile with the internet, I encourage you to look into using the useful EagleNet feature, my.american.edu. You must use your EagleNet user ID and password to gain access, but this feature allows you to conduct a significant range of tasks on EagleNet from any internet accessible computer in the world. I also encourage you to use your free AU computer account for the purposes of this course, as you probably will find that you will run out of user allocated file storage using many free e-mail ISPs.
In contrast, if you are a computer novice, or feel as though you should have better computer skills, I cannot emphasize strongly enough that you should approach tutorial/remedial work very EARLY in the semester. If you wait beyond the second week of class to try to begin your computer orientation, you will have an extremely difficult time in this course and may find yourself in such a tenuous position that it is impossible to recover.
One of the most common objections about this course deals with Excel usage. Most complaints address the lack of Excel training. Although students frequently express frustration with their lack of Excel understanding, I find that once a student has accepted that Excel is a very efficient and relatively user-friendly tool, substantial progress can be made. Since the vast majority of students in past offerings of this course have been able to attain a better than adequate skill level using Excel, I am betting that you can, too.
It will be REQUIRED for all students to learn the basics of using Microsoft Excel. Although some class time will be dedicated to Excel fundamentals, class exposure will not be sufficient for mastery. Excel can be accessed by many networked computers on the AU campus. If you are the least bit intimidated about learning to use Excel or more than what you already know, you definitely need to seek extra assistance as quickly as possible. We will use Excel not only for database management, but also for generating solutions for both descriptive and inferential statistical problems, and this will begin with the first assignment.
It will be REQUIRED for all students to learn how to generate technical graphs with a computer. We will focus on generating plots with Excel, but we may explore other software. Excel and any other useful software are available on AU networked computers found in student computing laboratories on campus.
An electronic handheld, four-function CALCULATOR is highly recommended as an adjunct to completing weekly assignment, quizzes and examinations. Please be prepared by bringing a calculator to all classes. Although a four function calculator will suffice, a calculator capable of producing the sum of squares and the sum squared will be a benefit, but I definitely DO NOT recommend purchasing one for this course.
COURSE GRADING
Grades will be based on weekly assignments, pop-quizzes, a mid-term exam, and a final exam. The relative percentage weights of the four components that will determine your grade are:
| Weekly Assignments |
30% |
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| Pop-quizzes |
10% |
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| Mid-term Exam |
30% |
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| Final Exam |
30% |
With a few possible exceptions, each week there will be an assignment, including reading and problem solving. Problem solving exercises must be submitted before the start of the class period in which they are due. NO assignment will be accepted if late. Late is defined as arriving one minute or more after the official start of our class meeting time. This may sound harsh, and it is certainly strict, but I want all students to have the same amount of time to complete their work. To alleviate some of this strictness of this policy you have an allowance for any two assignments. This means that you may elect to totally neglect two assignments OR you may drop your two lowest assignment grades. Thus, when you feel tempted to ask for extra time to submit your work because the dog chewed up your computer, resign yourself to this being one of the assignment grades that you may drop. Another reason why I do not allow late submission is because the solutions are posted after class, and it is clearly not fair to allow late submitters access to this advantage.
At the end of the semester, the two lowest grades among the weekly assignments will be excluded from the calculation of the assignment portion of your grade.
EACH week the first person to submit the weekly assignment will be awarded an extra 10 percentage points above the score of the submitted assignment.
For each assignment there will be an answer key posted during the evening in which the assignment is due. In most instances your scored assignments will be returned in one week or less from the respective assignment due date. It often surprises me that many students only look at their grade, but do not bother to compare their work with the posted solutions. This practice of not comparing solutions with one's own work can often make a substantial difference in one's grade.
There are some very important specific instructions about submitting your assignments. Please carefully read and attend to the information at this link.
POP-QUIZZES
Primarily to encourage students to stay current, there will be an unknown number of unannounced quizzes. If administered in class, these quizzes will last no more than 30 minutes, but in some instances quizzes may be take-home. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, class participation will be scored as a though it were a pop quiz. During each class meeting, students will be asked to either volunteer or called upon to provide their thoughts on a current topic. Reasonable responses, even if not fully correct will receive an acceptable score. A lack of response or a response lacking any vestige of content will receive a zero. Fielding questions in class will be discussed in greater detail, but please ask if you are uncertain how this component of your grade will be awarded.
There will be NO make-up pop-quizzes and missed quiz scores cannot be dropped.
MID-TERM EXAM
The take-home mid-term exam will include some short answer and also some objective questions. Additionally, this exam contains an extremely practical set of problems. There probably will be a number of questions on the exam involving calculations and the graphical display of results. Either a desktop or laptop computer is required for this exam. If any statistical formulas are necessary for the exam, they will be provided. Although you will not need to memorize any formulas, you may need to recognize the difference among some formulas and/or mathematical expressions. In all likelihood, you have never taken an exam similar to this, and there is a good reason why you will be given several days to complete your work. If you have kept current with class, you may be able to complete the exam in less than a few days, but if you are trying to learn the material on the fly, I can assure you that more than several days will be necessary. Please try to stay current with the course materials as they are introduced.
There will be NO make-up examinations. Since the exam is take-home and will span a multi-day period, there is scarcely a need to allow a make-up.
FINAL EXAMINATION
Similar to the format of the mid-term exam, the Final Examination will be a combination of objective-styled items, short answer questions, practical problems, and graphing exercises. A computer will be required to complete this exam. This exam will be cumulative and will cover the entire course content.
There will be NO make-up examinations.
ATTENDANCE
Although attendance will be taken for every class, your presence is NOT required except for the examinations and pop quizzes. Since there are NO make-ups, for any exam or quiz, one's grade could be substantially affected by absence coincidental with one or more tests.
PLAGIARISM
Unfortunately some, but very few students in past semesters have not bothered to fully acquaint themselves with the Academic Integrity Code of American University and/or have either naively or perhaps intentionally submitted work which blatantly violates one or more elements of this code. For many, if not most of the graded exercises in this course, I allow a great deal of freedom of access to reference materials, to problem solutions, to student collaboration, to computer programs, and to my private tutorials. In contrast, on examinations and quizzes, I totally restrict interpersonal contact of any form. If you have any doubts about the content of the Academic Integrity Code, I suggest that you read the full text. Without exception on your weekly assignments, I encourage you to work in small groups to learn from one another, however I would recommend against developing the extremely bad habit of submitting a carbon copy of a classmate's work. I look particularly unfavorably upon receiving submissions from one individual that displays the name of a classmate. Sounds bizarre doesn't it, but this phenomenon occurs with amazing regularity.
It is really not that hard to determine when students have shared information. For most problems in this course there is only a single correct answer, but virtually limitless incorrect responses. Thus, the probability that any two students will derive the exact same incorrect answer defies chance in what I like to call a statistically significant manner. If I suspect any form of student interaction during exams or quizzes, all parties will be reported to the Dean of the College which will result in a stressful experience at the least, and could result in dismissal from the university. I apologize for having to address such an unpleasant topic.
The
syllabus is currently under revision for Fall 2008
A tentative outline of the course follows. Based on the speed that our class moves as a group, this outline will probably change, but only slightly. At least one week in advance of each class the outline will be accessible with an active hyperlink. When you see the numbers below in the "CLASS" column become blue (or blinking), the respective lecture is accessible, but not necessarily in final form. Each hyperlink below will point you to a specific lecture. I highly recommend reading the lecture notes in advance of the class meeting. It will also be a good idea to print a hard copy of the lecture notes to have in class and make your own class notes on this copy. While the textbook is an important resource in this course, the notes associated with the links below will be indispensable. It is also a good idea to access the lecture notes for each upcoming class meeting at least two or three times during the week leading to a class meeting - important messages could be posted since your last review of the current week's lecture. Please be sure to check the date in the lower left corner for day of most recent revision.
Remember to check the following often as there will be updates and important notices
If you want to see how frequently you are accessing these pages, click here.
this website is currently being updated for Fall 2008
some content will be changing until this alert is removed
| CLASS | TOPIC & ASSIGNMENT | ||
|
1 |
28-Aug |
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Course Content; |
| Scientific Method, Definitions; Measurement Scales; Graphs; | |||
| Data Arrays - Constructing a Research Data Spreadsheet | |||
| Assignment: Read Ch 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5; | |||
assignment #1key, click here |
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2 |
4-Sep |
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Brief Review of Lecture 1 |
| Distributions & Graphs; Frequency Plots; Nominal Data Plots; | |||
| Relationship Plotting, Single Summation | |||
| Central Tendency - mode, median, mean, preview of standard deviation | |||
| Assignment: Read Ch 4, 5, & 6; | |||
|
Problems assigned in class assignment #2 key, click here |
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3 |
11-Sep |
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Measures of Variability |
| Outliers (extreme scores); Recoding; | |||
| Assignment: Read Chapter 6 | |||
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Problems assigned in class assignment #3 key, click here |
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4 |
18-Sep |
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Standard Scores; z scores, other standard scores; |
| Foundations of Inference; hypothesis construction; | |||
| Statistical Power; alpha & beta error | |||
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Assignment: Read Chapter 6, 7, 8 Problems assigned in class; |
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assignment #4 key, click here |
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5 |
25-Sep |
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Today in class, a ten-item true/false quiz (click here for key) Introduction to correlation & regression |
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Assignment: Read ch 9, 12, 13 assignment #5 key, click here |
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Problems assigned in class |
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6 |
2-Oct |
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Regression continued |
| Practicalities of Research | |||
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Assignment: Read ch 12, 13, 11, 14, 15 assignment #6 key, click here |
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Problems assigned in class |
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7-Oct |
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Mid-term download date click HERE when underlined and blue As of 10/18 21:00, there is an exam item with a CORRECTION |
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7 |
9-Oct |
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Overview of Surveys & Methodology Introduction to Probability |
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there is no Reading assignment for Lecture #7 |
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8 |
16-Oct |
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Probability continued (we will use lecture #7 notes for this lecture) As of 10/18 21:00, there is an exam item with a CORRECTION |
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Read chapters 16 & 17 to complete our coverage of probability Also read Chapter 18 on Sampling Distribution Models |
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21-Oct |
As of 10/18 21:00, there is an exam item with a CORRECTION Mid-term Exam is due at 5:30 PM |
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9 |
23-Oct |
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Probability continued; Sampling Distribution Models |
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Assignment: Read chapters 19 - 21 problems assigned in class assignment #9 key, click here |
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10 |
30-Oct |
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Sampling Distribution Methods CI for proportions, intro to chi square |
| Assignment: Read 19 - 23 | |||
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Problems assigned in class assignment #10 key, click here |
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11 |
6-Nov |
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Comparing sample proportions, inferences around sample means |
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Assignment: Read |
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Problems assigned in class assignment #11 key, click here |
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12 |
13-Nov |
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comparing sample means |
| Read lecture #13 | |||
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Assignment due 1 Dec: Problems assigned in class assignment #12 key, click here |
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20-Nov |
No Class, Thanksgiving Recess | |
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Final Exam download (click here) | |
| 13 |
27-Nov
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Integration of Statistical Techniques |
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Problems assigned in class assignment #13 key, click here |
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14 |
4-Dec |
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New Exam Error (12/11) on Errata Page Summary and Course Evaluation grade report, click here |
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11-Dec |
Exam Due no later than 1730 |
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Go to the Lecture 1 ----->
