A WORKSHOP ON THE NEED FOR DATA PRODUCTION IN AN INTRODUCTORY APPLIED STATISTICS COURSE FOR BUSINESS STUDENTS: AN EXTENSION OF THE MAKING STATISTICS MORE EFFECTIVE IN SCHOOLS AND BUSINESS CONFERENCES PARTICIPANTS

摘要

This workshop will describe the sixteenth annual Making Statistics More Effective in Schools and Business (MSMESB) conference. The mission of this conference is to provide a vehicle for continuous improvement in the teaching of statistics, in statistical thinking, and in business education. It encourages interdisciplinary research involving faculty from statistics, faculty from areas related to business, practitioners from industry and government, publishers, and software producers. Although the workshop will describe plans for future conferences, including the 2002 conference at St. Louis University, most of the workshop will discuss the need for data production (study design, data acquisition, and data preparation) in an introductory applied statistics course.The workshop will briefly report on the Making Statistics More Effective in Schools and Business Conferences between 1986 and 2001. (For more information, consult ) The first conference was organized at the University of Chicago by George Easton, Harry Roberts, and George Tiao. The next fourteen conferences were held at New York University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of Kansas, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Tennessee, the Carlson School of the University of Minnesota, Rutgers University, California State University at Sacramento, the University of Alaska at Anchorage, the Pennsylvania State University, the University of Iowa, Babson College, and Syracuse University.The sixteenth conference was held at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on 21-23 June 2001. A panel discussed the theme of the conference, "Beyond the Core", in the first plenary session. (Other plenary sessions dealt with "Computational Genomics: A New Frontier for Statisticians" presented by Michael Zuker, RPI, and "Communication Skills in Statistical Consulting: Opportunities for Statistical Education" presented by Janice Derr, U.S. Food and Drug Administration.) Subsequent theme sessions considered non-introductory courses in multivariate analysis, regression, and data production. Addition sessions were held on training industrialstatisticians; teaching consulting skills; distance learning and teaching; and statistical education. There were also a tour of General Electric Power Systems and contributed papers. This workshop will also describe the 2002 MSMESB Conference to be hosted by St. Louis University, 13-15 June 2002.The second part of this workshop will be similar to workshops successfully presented at the last 12 Annual Meetings of the Decision Sciences Institute. At this workshop participants will be actively involved in learning about one of the curriculum and teaching issues raised during the most recent MSMESB conference. Namely, the need for more data production in the first course. Data do not just appear; they need to be produced. The organizers will explain that close to two-thirds of the audience felt that more data production should be incorporated into the core, which currently spends little time on this important part of the statistical process. Attendees will be asked to give their opinions on the increased coverage of study design, data collection, and data preparation. They will also be asked to explain how they would incorporate topics such as the construction of a questionnaire, transfer of data from either the Internet or a database to a statistical package, and treatment of missing data in their core course. By attending this portion of the workshop, Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) members will better understand the changes in the instruction of statistics occurring in today's schools of business. By using this format there will be an ample opportunity for DSI members at this workshop to ask questions or give comments. It will also allow them to network with other business school statisticians.The goal of this workshop is to make people aware of the Making Statistics More Effective in Schools and Business Conferences and the numerous recommendations from these conferences, such as more coverage of data production topics. Knowledge of these conferences should improve the quality of statistics and the other decision sciences in schools of management.