Announcements+and+News

__** In-Class "Final" **__
__Description of In-Class Final Exam__ You will take your fianl exam in class, and will have a partner or small team assigned by Dr. Ausburn. You will not know your exam question until you come to class on the night of the exam, so you should be prepared to work with any statistical procedure we have worked on during the semester. You and your partner(s) will receive your question and then will be given an hour to prepare a response. You may use your texts and notes during your response preparation. Each team will need access to a computer with SPSS access for the exam, so either bring a laptop with SPSS loaded OR plan to use a computer in the College of Education. You should be sure you understand all statistics we have covered in class, know when to use them, and how to prepare, use, and interpret an SPSS data file QUICKLY. After the hours preparation time, each team will report orally on your question and answer

(I have tried to team everyone with a classmate located where you can easily confer and prepare during the week)
 * Here are your teams for your in-class final activity: **

__**TEAM 1:**__ Jennifer Duncan and Khaiser Omar __**TEAM 2**__: Deanna Little and Ephanie Debey __**TEAM 3**__: Erica Burns and Joel Clay __**TEAM 4**__: Jeff Jennings, Juli Cook, and Tara Roberson-Moore

You are welcome to confer with your partner(s) during this week. __You can use your books and notes while you do your in-class final; that is how you would work in the real research world__. BE SURE someone on your team brings a LAPTOP to class for the final!

__**USEFUL CONCEPTS AND THE STATISTICAL REFERENCES THAT SUPPORT THEM**__ __Good reference book if you are interested in questionnaires and surveys:__ Fowler, Jr., Floyd J. (2009). //#|Survey research methods// (4th edition). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

__Gay and Arasian's definition of Cross-Sectional or "Snap Shot" Survey; Contrast with Longitudinal Studies__ This describes attitudes, opinions, preferences, demographics, practices, and procedures //**at one point in time**// of a selected sample that can be generalized to a population. This contrasts to longitudinal studies, which follow a specific individual or group of individuals over a considerable period of time, sometimes years. SOURCE: Gay, L.R., & Arasian, P. (2000). //Educational research: competencies for analysis and #|application// (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

__Non-response bias in surveys:__ Linder, R.L., Murphy, T. H., & Briers, G. E. (2001). Handling nonresponse in social science research. //Journal of Agricultural Education 42//(4), 43-54 . Principal: Late responders are similar to non-responders (rather than early responders). Thus, one way to test for non-response bias in your obtained sample is to compare the "scores" of early and late responders, using an independent sample //t//-test. If there is no significant difference between the early and late responders, there is probably no response bias in #|your sample. If there IS a significant difference between the early and late responders, there probably IS non-response bias in your data, meaning that your sample may have answered differently than those who did not respond. BOTTOM LINE: You may have a biased set of response data.

__Violation of Assumptions of Parametric Statistics (such as //t//-test and ANOVA)__ Parametric statistical tests such as //t//-tests and ANOVAS are reasonably **robust to violation,** meaning they generally provide reliable information about the population underlying a sample even though one or more of the test's assumptions have been violated. Also, the standard parametric tests are generally more "powerful" than their non-parametric alternatives. Thus, many researchers will choose to use the appropriate parametric statistic. However, they may be more conservative in their interpretation when they feel assumptions may have been violated. SOURCE: Sheskin, D. J. (2007). //Handbook of parametric and non-parametric statistical procedures.// (4th ed.). Boca Raton, Florida: Chapman & Hall/CRC Tayor & Francis Group.