Analysis of Nonnormal Data

Anil Gore and Sharayu Paranjpe

Aim of Course:

The basic statistical analysis that most of us learned in college or university applies, in the main, to normally-distributed data. Most problems in statistical analysis, however, involve data that are not normally-distributed. This course will review various types of nonnormal data, and the statistical techniques required to analyze them. Many of these techniques are dealt with in depth in other statistics.com courses, so the purpose of this survey course is to help you recognize what types of techniques are appropriate for given types of data, and what those techniques can do.

Who Should Take This Course:

Researchers who need to analyze various types of data in their work and, although they have had some statistics, are uncertain what statistical methods are appropriate for different sorts of data. Students who need a bridge between the first course in statistics and later in-depth courses in specific techniques.

For those enrolled in Professional Advancement Programs, this is a required or elective course in the following Programs:

• Biostatistics (epidemiology) - required
• Biostatistics (controlled trials) - required
• Statistics for Social Sciences - required
• Statistics for Environmental Science - required
• Statistics in Business & Marketing - elective

Course Program:

The course is structured as follows

The Instructor:

Dr. Anil Gore is Prof. of Statistics at the University of Pune, India. Dr. Gore is the co-author of the classic Statistical Analysis of Nonnormal Data, and has also written Numeracy for Everyone (forthcoming) and A Course in Mathematical and Statistical Ecology. Dr. Gore has a special interest in statistical ecology and is the author of several dozen articles in peer-previewed journals.

Dr. Sharayu Paranjpe teaches statistics at the University of Pune, India. She is co-author (with Dr. Gore) of "A Course in Statistical Ecology" and "Statistical Inference in Saturating Hyperbolic Models," and has also written or co-written dozens of articles in peer-previewed journals.

Organization of the Course:

The course takes place over the internet, at statistics.com. During each course week, you participate at times of your own choosing - there are no set times when you must be online. Course participants will be given access to a private discussion board. In class discussions led by the instructor, you can post questions, seek clarification, and interact with your fellow students and the instructor. The course is scheduled to take place over 4 weeks, and typically requires 10-15 hours per week. At the beginning of each week, you receive the relevant material, in addition to answers to exercises from the previous session. During the week, you are expected to go over the course materials and work through exercises. Discussion among participants is encouraged. The instructor will provide answers and comments.

Certificates and Grades:

You may be interested only in learning the material presented, and not be concerned with grades or certificates. Or you may be enrolled in a statistics.com Professional Advancement Program that requires demonstration of proficiency in the subject, in which case your work will be assessed for purposes of issuing a grade. Or you may require only a "Certificate of Course Completion," along with professional development credit in the form of Continuing Education Units (CEU's). As you begin the class, you will be asked to specify your category.

Credit:

This course offers continuing education units (CEU's). For those successfully completing the course (generally this means marks of 50% or better on the homework), 5.0 CEU's and a certificate will be issued by statistics.com, upon request.

Dates:

Feb. 6 - Mar. 6, 2009
Click here to be notified of future course offerings.

Participants gain access to the online materials on the first day of the course, and typically spend about 10-15 hours per week (at their convenience). You retain full access to course materials, including discussion board, for two weeks after the course closing date.

Level:

Intermediate/beginner

Prerequisite:

The equivalent of Introduction to Statistics I: Inference for a Single Variable, and Introduction to Statistics II: Working with Bivariate Data (and, if necessary before these courses, Introduction to Statistics for Beginners or Survey of Statistics for Beginners).

Course Text:

The course text, Statistical Analysis of Nonnormal Data, by Deshpande, Gore and Shanubhogue, will be made available to class participants electronically.

Software:

The course will include many smaller data sets that can be analyzed without the use of software. Larger data sets will also be used that can be analyzed with any standard statistical software package.

Registration:

Register Online - $449
Register Online (academic) - $349 (you must be affiliated with a college, university or high school)

Add $50 service fee if you require a prior invoice, or if you need to submit a purchase order or voucher, pay by wire transfer or EFT, or refund and reprocess a prior payment. Please use this printed registration form, for these and other special orders.

Note: Courses may fill up at any time and registrations are processed in the order in which they are received. Your registration will be confirmed for the first available course date, unless you specify otherwise.