Journal of Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences
Volume 7 (2003), Issue 2, Pages 105-113
doi:10.1155/S1173912603000105
Making statistics significant in a short course for graduates with widely-varying non-statistical backgrounds
School of Mathematical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Copyright © 2003 H. L. Macgillivray. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Abstract. With reference to a short compulsory module for MBA students, this paper discusses how, despite a range of pressures and an extraordinary range of student backgrounds, fears and motivations, it is possible to quickly facilitate understanding and confidence in handling data and basic statistics for graduates in business and associated workplaces. Links and contrasts with a variety of undergraduate teaching scenarios help to enrich teaching and learning strategies, and the strategies and materials developed through interaction with the range of MBA students are transferable to other postgraduate coursework situations. In particular, the need for understanding and confidence in handling data and its presentation, in considering categorical and simple continuous data, and in understanding correlation and association, are common across many different workplaces and applications.