Decision Sciences 430: Online precourse

With luck, the online precourse can be found here. (Otherwise, please contact KIS as soon as possible.)

As well, the interspersed links below summarize and expand upon portions of the online course. I recommend that you read through them as well before the course starts.

  • Descriptive statistics (pages 5-31).
  • In Week 1, we'll use the sample mean (x̅) and sample standard deviation (s) in order to make estimates using simulation, and in order to say how much our estimates can be "trusted". During Week 4, we'll discuss the sample mean and sample standard deviation in more detail.

  • Sampling (pages 32-35).

    During Weeks 4 and 5, we'll discuss various sampling methods, including both stratified sampling, and cluster sampling.

  • Randomness: This is the main topic to be covered in Week 1 of the course.
  • Random variables (74-109). Weeks 2 and 3.

    Probability basics summarizes the "rules" for working with probabilities, and with expected values, variances, and standard deviations.

  • Inferential statistics
  • Uncertainty and economics (not in precourse). Week 5