PSYC 2298 - Behavioral Statistics
Class Meeting: MW 8:00 am - 9:30 am
NOTE: This course will be designated an online course, however, you should still keep the course time available as I will have office hours/review sessions at this time.
Office: CAB 306
Available by appointment. See the scheduler to the right to make an appointment.
For Fall 2020: ALL one-on-one meetings will take place via Microsoft Teams
Email: ssthomas@lagrange.edu
(use subject: PSYC 2298)
Phone: 706-880-8298
Twitter: @SocialPsySteph (Class hashtag: #PSYC2298)
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Please see the course calendar at the bottom of the page for assignment and exam dates.
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All students enrolled for Fall 2020 should complete the following survey. All surveys should be completed by Tuesday, August 25th at 8:00 am. This survey will count as your first participation points for the course.
Assistant Professor
306 CAB
Department of Psychological Sciences
LaGrange College
Text & Software
Text: Gravetter, F. J., Wallanu,
L. B., & Forzano, L. B. (2018). Essentials of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. Cengage Learning.
ISBN: 978-1-337-09812-0
The book is NOT required but can be helpful for explaining information and providing additional practice problems. Materials have been placed on course reserve at the Lewis Library by your Professor. Course Reserves are held behind the Smith Circulation Desk and are for in-library use only. Due to Covid-19, students that wish to use these materials will be asked to use hand sanitizer and wear gloves (provided by the library). The materials may be checked out for 3 hours at a time.
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Proctoring Software: In this class, LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor will be used to facilitate the online proctoring of assessments (such as quizzes or exams). Students will be able to download LockDown Browser from a link provided from within our course on Connect and will incur a one-time, $15.00 fee (payable only by credit card) for the use of Respondus Monitor. This one-time fee will entitle a student to unlimited use of Respondus Monitor for this course and any other on at LaGrange College for the time period of one year.
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These pieces of software work only with a reliable desktop or laptop computers running Windows or Mac OS as well as modern iPads. Devices used for testing must be equipped with a functional webcam and must have access to a stable, high-speed internet connection. LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor will not function with smartphones, tablets that are not iPads, or Chromebooks.
If you do not have access to a personal computer that meets these specifications, laptops are available for checkout in Lewis Library. Campus Wi-Fi is robust and will satisfy your internet connectivity requirements.
Students having difficulties with the functionality of these tools should contact IT (support@lagrange.edu, 8049) for assistance.
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Calculator: For exams, students will need a calculator to perform basic calculations. No graphing calculators, programmable calculators, cell phones, tablets, or smartwatches will be allowed. A simple dollar store calculator would be sufficient or students can get this calculator or a similar one for around $3 - $4 on Amazon. Students should make sure to have their calculator during the exam as once you start the exam, you will not be able to get up to get it.
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Course Objectives
The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the fundamentals of statistics as utilized in the behavioral sciences. The goals of this course are to familiarize you with the basics of statistical theory and analyses. Through this course, you should learn how to compute and interpret common statistical tests and understand statistical reporting in an academic setting.
Course Requirements
Exams and Quizzes
There will be 3 exams during the course of the semester and 1 final exam to be given during finals week. The final exam will contain a comprehensive section. The exams may entail word problems and multiple-choice questions. These exams will be based on lectures, in-class exercises, outside readings, and homework assignments including material covered in the textbook. It is very important to complete each lesson and to take good notes. To see the specific dates for all exams, please check the course calendar at the end of the syllabus.
To do well on the exams: you will need to complete lessons on time, take good notes, keep up with the reading material, keep up with the homework, and study both this material and the notes with the aim of fully understanding it. In order to take the exam, you must complete all the required lessons before the start of the exam. Please see the attendance section below.
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Exam policy for Fall 2020: All exams will be administered through Connect using Respondus. To use Respondus, students will be required to purchase access (a year subscription to the service is $15 and one subscription can be used for all of your courses that require Respondus). In addition, all students will need a working webcam and a computer (please note: Chromebooks will NOT work with Respondus). All students complete their exams at the same time.
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Final exam: The final exam will take place starting on Tuesday, November 24th at 8:00 am. The final exam will contain a section with new material and a comprehensive section covering material from the entire semester. There will be no make-ups or early exams given for the final exam.
Absence during an exam: Please notify the instructor on the day of your absence from a test by e-mail. To make up an exam, a student must have an excused absence. An excused absence is determined by the instructor and may include an illness that requires the student to remain at home/in their dorm room, a death of someone close to the student, a court date during class time, a school-sponsored event that occurs during class time, or other events at the discretion of the instructor. To notify the instructor of an excused absence, the student must complete an electronic absence form (this can be found on Connect). If documentation is available, that should be submitted along with the form. Only one undocumented exam absence will be counted as excused per student. After that one, all exam absences must be accompanied by written documentation to count as excused. To designate a missed exam as excused (whether it has documentation or not), the student must submit an absence form no later than 24 hrs after the date they are approved to return to work/class to be able to make up the exam and receive full credit; 20% will be deducted from the exam grade if the student submits the absence form after this time. The student must then arrange to make up the exam as soon as it is convenient, but definitely within 1 week of the original exam date. If more than one student needs to make up the exam, one common time may be arranged for all makeup exams to be given. If no absence form is turned in, the exam cannot be made up and the student will receive a grade of "0" for that exam. If the exam has not been made up within one week of the original exam date (unless prior approval has been obtained by the instructor), the exam cannot be made up and the student will receive a grade of "0" for that exam. The instructor will not contact the student to determine if a missed exam is excused. If no contact is made by the student, it is assumed the missed exam is unexcused. Zeros will be given for exams when it is determined that the absence is unexcused. Please note the following examples of unexcused absences: absences due to vacations or leaving early before a scheduled break, except under extenuating circumstances, work schedules are not considered an excuse for missing an exam.
Quizzes: The instructor reserves the right to give pop quizzes in class at any time
Lessons
Though this class is online, there will be lessons posted for each course period (i.e., 3 lessons per week). Completion of these lessons is crucial to be successful in this course. Missing just one lesson can put you far behind on material. Thus, completing the lessons on time is a required component of this course and will contribute to your grade.
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If you miss a lesson, you must complete an absence form (found on Connect) and submit it no later than 24 hrs after you are able to return to work. You will then receive a response from me stating if your absence is excused or unexcused along with your new due date for your assignment(s) Then, you should complete the lesson you missed. If your absence is excused, no late penalty will be assessed. If your absence is unexcused, then your grade will be reduced using the following scale.
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If you have three or more missed lessons during a unit of the course that you have not yet madeup, you will NOT be permitted to sit for the exam for that unit. Lessons that you have made-up using the above procedure will not be counted towards this total. Students need to have completed ALL of the makeup steps before the corresponding exam date to be eligible.
Homework and Participation
Another contribution to the overall grade will be participating in active learning exercises such as activities and homework assignments. These activities are designed to help students learn concepts in an active and memorable manner. By participating in these learning exercises, students will get hands-on experience in calculating and interpreting statistics. This type of hands-on learning will be invaluable for succeeding in this course. In-lesson activities will not be announced in advance.
If you miss a homework assignment, you must complete an absence form (found on Connect) and submit it no later than 24 hrs after you are able to return to work. You will then receive a response from me stating if your absence is excused or unexcused along with your new due date for your assignment(s) Then, you should complete the homework assignment you missed. If your absence is excused, no late penalty will be assessed. If your absence is unexcused, then your grade will be reduced using the same scale as for lessons.
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Twitter: I will use Twitter to send out additional reminders and announcements (in addition to what I post on Connect). Students are strongly encouraged to follow me to easily receive this information. When I post information relevant to our class, I will use #PSYC2298. In order to see this information as soon as it is posted, you can set up an alert for this # within Twitter such that you will receive a notification every time someone posts with this #. I encourage students that have questions or comments related to class to post using this # as well or send me a direct tweet. I will also post a list of all students' Twitter handles on Connect (for those students who have indicated they are willing to share this information) so that students may connect using Twitter. This offers an easy way to ask questions of other students, post information relevant to the class, or set up group study sessions.
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Overall Grading
The different types of assignments that you will encounter in this class will each contribute a unique amount of weight towards your final grade in the class. The following table lists the percent of your final grade that will come from each of the designated types of assignments.
For tips on how best to prepare for this class, please see the following help document.
The following factors may also affect a student's grade:
Grades may also reflect class behavior, and those students who behave in a way deemed disruptive by the instructor may have their grades reduced and/or be referred to Student Judiciaries. Likewise, students that are active in class discussion may have their grades increased.
Academic misconduct. Any student who cheats or plagiarizes will be given a grade of “F” for the course and will be referred to Student Judiciaries. Cheating includes, but is not limited to: wearing earphones or hats to the test session, attempting to or leaving the classroom with a copy of the test or answer sheet, looking at another student’s test or answer sheet, or using a phone during the exam period. Plagiarism involves any attempt to pass off work from another source as your own. This applies to both tests and assignments.
Extra Credit Assignments
Make-Up Problems
Any makeup-work that does not need to be completed to makeup for a missed lesson can be completed for extra credit.​ Thus, for any section of material that you miss no lessons, you can complete the extra assignment for extra credit points. There is no limit to the number of extra assignment students can complete. Students must earn at least an 80% on the assignment to earn the extra credit. For each assignment that students earn at least an 80%, 2% will be added to their corresponding exam grade. ALL questions must be answered, if any questions are left blank, the assignment will be returned ungraded. All extra assignments are due by the exam on which that material appears. Specific due dates are given on Connect.
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Finding Errors
To encourage the reading of all class materials, I offer extra credit to the first person to notice errors in any class documents. If you spot an error (this can be as simple as a misplaced comma or a misspelled word), please send me an email with a screenshot and explanation of the error. Each found error will earn you extra credit towards the Participation portion of your grade. This not only encourages deep reading and attention to all class materials but ensures that the class materials are continually improving.
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Maintaining a Good Learning Environment
Phones & Other Devices
Given that this course is being conducted as an online course, access to a computer with a working webcam and microphone and reliable internet is a requirement of the course.
Please use polite email etiquette and don't email me about these issues or your email may be deleted. In general, my email responses will be very short (1-sentence). I am not trying to be rude, just efficient as I get many emails in a day. If your question requires a lengthy response, I would suggest scheduling a meeting with me instead. For all email responses, please permit at least 24 hours before expecting a response (e.g., you are unlikely to get a response to your email the night before an exam). In general, emails may not be answered over the weekend, holidays, or after business hours.
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Microsoft Teams
For Fall 2020 we will be using Microsoft Teams to live-stream class sessions as well as to aid in communication both inside and outside of the classroom. Thus, you are required to have Microsoft Teams setup on your computer. You are also strongly encouraged to set this up on your phone as well. There is a free app in the app store you can download. This software is free with your LC account. Do not create a new account, use your LC Microsoft account to log in. If you have trouble logging in, please contact IT. More information including tutorials on how to access and download Teams as well as a link to our course Team are provided on Connect.
Other Administrative Details
All papers submitted in this class should follow the paper formatting guidelines found here.
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All exams and handwritten work turned in for a grade must be completed in pencil if not typed. Do not use pen/marker/highlighter to complete any graded work.
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The course outline is a guide. The coverage of certain topics or participation in class activities may take more time or less time than was originally expected. The instructor reserves the right to alter the course outline at any time. Students will be notified in class and/or by email of any changes in the course outline. If given as an option, the student majority vote will decide changes in exam dates that may occur.
All due dates and times in this course are given in eastern time. Please note! If you travel to central time, your work is still due at the stated eastern time!
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In the case of an emergency such as severe weather or an influenza or zombie outbreak, I may be obliged to make changes to course content, assignments, or other substantive elements of the class.
The syllabus may be corrected or amended if errors or omissions are discovered after the syllabus is posted. Corrections will be posted to the course Connect site and/or the instructor's Twitter page.
ADA Statement: Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, LaGrange College consistently undertakes to provide, by every reasonable effort, assistance and appropriate accommodations to qualified students with disabilities. If you have a disability, please contact Brandi Cameron, Coordinator of Learning Disability Support Services at 706-880-8269. She is located in Smith Hall in room 121. Students with documented accommodations that they wish to utilize must speak with the instructor & present documentation by the end of the 2nd week of the semester.
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Acts of academic misconduct (e.g. cheating, plagiarism) may result in course failure and will result in referral to the Honor Council. No electronic devices may be on a student's person, out, or in use during exams or other graded activities. If that rule is violated, it will be assumed that the device is used for cheating. The matter will be referred to the Honor Council. Unless told otherwise by the instructor, assume that all graded work uses only the student's brainpower and is closed book/notes/internet and is an individual assignment. During exams and graded activities, students may only have a pencil and an eraser on the table top (aside from any materials provided by the instructor). During exams, all belongings should be closed and stowed under the table. All notes/books must be in a zipped bag and placed under the table. You must turn in your exam if you leave the room.
Honor Code: “As a member of the student body of LaGrange College, I confirm my commitment to the ideals of civility, diversity, service, and excellence. Recognizing the significance of personal integrity in establishing these ideals within our community, I pledge that I will not lie, cheat, steal, nor tolerate these unethical behaviors in others.”
All tests, papers, etc... will be destroyed during week 5 of the following semester. Any questions regarding grades or assignments must be addressed before that time.
You are required to get permission from the instructor if you wish to audio record, video record, or take pictures of a class.
Important information from the instructor will be sent to student's via their LaGrange email account or via announcements within the Connect course site. Students are responsible for all messages and materials sent via these routes. Reminders and hints may also be sent via the instructor's Twitter account. Any changes to course policy, dates, or assignments will also be sent via email or Connect.
DropGuard: The faculty, staff, and administration at LaGrange College want students to succeed in every aspect of their college experience. One of the tools we use to help us in that process is called DropGuard. The DropGuard system allows faculty and staff members to enter information when they are concerned about students – perhaps because of absences from class or other activities, or because of irregular performance, and so on. If there are several indications that things may not be going well for a student, it’s possible that the student will be contacted by their advisor or by another campus official. Students may receive email notifications from DropGuard when the instructor notes a concern. If a student finds themselves in a situation where they could use some additional assistance, please set up a meeting with a faculty member or academic advisor. Naturally, academic support services are readily available in PACE, Tutoring Center, the Writing Center, and in the Counseling Center (study skills, time management, etc.). If students have specific questions about DropGuard itself, please feel free to e-mail: studentsuccess@lagrange.edu.
If you ever encounter an issue with an online assignment, please email me and you MUST include a screenshot that documents your issue. Failure to follow this guideline may result in a denial of your request for late submission of the assignment. As a note, technical errors are bound to occur, therefore, it is HIGHLY recommended that you do not wait until the last minute to complete assignments.
Responsible Employee Reporting Obligation: All faculty and staff share in the responsibility to create a safe learning environment for all students and for the campus as a whole. As members of the campus community, all faculty and staff (other than those designated as confidential reporters) are designated as responsible employees and therefore have the duty to report any instances of sexual harassment, sexual violence and/or other forms of prohibited discrimination. If a student would prefer to share information about sexual harassment, sexual violence or discrimination with a confidential employee who does not have this reporting responsibility, a list of those individuals can be found at http://www.lagrange.edu/about/security/sexual-harassment-violence.html.
*Instructor reserves right to alter schedule due to any unforeseen circumstances*
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