Quantitative Research Methods provides basic training in the gathering, description and analysis of quantitative information in the social, business, management and financial sciences.

This is a course in basic research methods including discussions of: data gathering issues and techniques; sources of data and potential biases; graphical and numerical data description techniques including simple linear regression, sampling behaviour of averages and the Central Limit Theorem; point and interval estimation procedures; concepts in hypothesis testing for comparing two populations, simple and multiple linear regression; p-values and significance levels.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. Compare and contrast different sampling methodologies and assess suitability for a range of situations;
2. Discuss different types of variables and produce appropriate graphical and numerical descriptive statistics;
3. Explain and apply probability rules and concepts relating to a range discrete and continuous random variables;
4. Describe the importance of the Central Limit Theorem and its uses and applications;
5. Use concepts of estimation, including point and interval estimators;
6. Perform and interpret hypothesis tests for a range of situations;
7. Perform and interpret simple and multiple linear regressions; and,
8. Use technology to perform statistical analysis, and interpret statistical software output.

Research-Led Teaching

In order to investigate new fields, make sense of new areas and tackle new problems, we need appropriate tools to explore and summarise data, graphically and numerically, and make decisions using the data under uncertainty. This course will use examples from varied areas to introduce statistical tools, methods and ways of thinking to students and prepare them for future courses, work and research projects. The assignment will require students to source their own data set for analysis and independently formulate their own research question.

Examination Material or equipment

The final exam will be centrally timetabled by Examinations, Graduations & Prizes prior to the examination period and will be held in person on campus. Please check ANU Timetabling for further information. You will require a scientific calculator for the final exam.

Required Resources

The required textbook is Business Analytics and Statistics (1st edition, 2019) by Black, Asafu-Adjaye, Burke, Perera, Sherwood Wasimi

Electronic copies of the textbook have been requested at the library.

This course will also use Microsoft Excel to view data sets, perform some calculations and generate graphs. The software can be accessed for free by ANU students here:

https://services.anu.edu.au/information-technology/software-systems/microsoft-office-365

A scientific calculator or Microsoft Excel can be used to perform the calculations required for this course.

Staff Feedback

Students will be given feedback in the following forms in this course: 

?                To the whole class during lectures.

?                Within tutorial groups.

?                Individually during consultation hours

Student Feedback

ANU is committed to the demonstration of educational excellence and regularly seeks feedback from students. Students are encouraged to offer feedback directly to their Course Convener or through their College and Course representatives (if applicable). Feedback can also be provided to Course Conveners and teachers via the Student Experience of Learning & Teaching (SELT) feedback program. SELT surveys are confidential and also provide the Colleges and ANU Executive with opportunities to recognise excellent teaching, and opportunities for improvement.

Other Information

Assessment Requirements

Any student identified, either during the current semester or in retrospect, as having used ghost writing services will be investigated under the University’s Academic Misconduct Rule.

As a further academic integrity control, students may be selected for a 15 minute individual oral examination of their written assessment submissions.

Scaling

Your final mark for the course will be based on the raw marks allocated for each of your assessment items. However, your final mark may not be the same number as produced by that formula, as marks may be scaled. Any scaling applied will preserve the rank order of raw marks (i.e. if your raw mark exceeds that of another student, then your scaled mark will exceed the scaled mark of that student) and may be either up or down.

Support for Students

The University offers a number of support services for students. Information on these is available online from http://students.anu.edu.au/studentlife/

Class Schedule

Week/Session	Summary of Activities	Assessment
1	TopicsChapter 1 - Basic Statistical concepts (Section 1.3)Chapter 7 - Collecting data (Sections 7.1 - 7.3)Chapter 2 - Presenting data in tables and charts (Section 2.1; Section 2.2 (histograms and scatter plots); Section 2.3)Introduction to Microsoft Excel
2	TopicsIntroduction to Microsoft ExcelChapter 3 - Descriptive Summary Measures
3	TopicsChapter 4 - Probability	In-Tutorial Quiz 1
4	TopicsChapter 5 - Discrete probability distributions (Sections 5.1 - 5.3)	Assignment 2 Available
5	TopicsChapter 6 - Normal distribution and other continuous distributions (Sections 6.1 - 6.5)	In-Tutorial Quiz 2
6	TopicsChapter 7 - Sampling distributions (Sections 7.4 - 7.5)Chapter 8 - Confidence interval estimation	Assignment 1 Available
7	TopicsChapter 8 - Confidence interval estimationChapter 9 - Hypothesis testing : single population tests	Assignment 1 Due
8	TopicsChapter 9 - Hypothesis testing : single population tests	In-Tutorial Quiz 3
9	TopicsChapter 10 - Hypothesis testing: two population tests
10	TopicsChapter 11 (Section 11.2) - One way ANOVAChapter 12 (Section 12.2) - Chi-square test of independenceChapter 13 - Simple linear regression
11	TopicsChapter 13 - Simple linear regressionChapter 14 - Multiple linear regression	Assignment 2 Due
12	TopicsChapter 14 - Multiple linear regression Review

Tutorial Registration

Tutorials commence in Week 2 of the semester and will be held on campus. ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities/tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage (https://www.anu.edu.au/students/program-administration/timetabling).

Assessment Summary

Assessment task	Value	Due Date	Return of assessment	Learning Outcomes
In-Tutorial Quiz 1	5 %	09/08/2024	16/08/2024	1,2
In-Tutorial Quiz 2	5 %	23/08/2024	30/08/2024	1,2,3,4
Assignment 1	10 %	18/09/2024	02/10/2024	1,2,3,4,5
In-Tutorial Quiz 3	5 %	27/09/2024	04/10/2024	1,2,3,4,5,6
Assignment 2	20 %	16/10/2024	30/10/2024	1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
Final Exam	55 %	31/10/2024	28/11/2024	1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

* If the Due Date and Return of Assessment date are blank, see the Assessment Tab for specific Assessment Task details

Policies

ANU has educational policies, procedures and guidelines , which are designed to ensure that staff and students are aware of the University’s academic standards, and implement them. Students are expected to have read the Academic Integrity Rule before the commencement of their course. Other key policies and guidelines include:

• Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
• Student Assessment (Coursework) Policy and Procedure
• Extenuating Circumstances Application
• Student Surveys and Evaluations
• Deferred Examinations
• Student Complaint Resolution Policy and Procedure
• Code of practice for teaching and learning

Assessment Requirements

The ANU is using Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the Academic Skills website. In rare cases where online submission using Turnitin software is not technically possible; or where not using Turnitin software has been justified by the Course Convener and approved by the Associate Dean (Education) on the basis of the teaching model being employed; students shall submit assessment online via ‘Wattle’ outside of Turnitin, or failing that in hard copy, or through a combination of submission methods as approved by the Associate Dean (Education). The submission method is detailed below.

Moderation of Assessment

Marks that are allocated during Semester are to be considered provisional until formalised by the College examiners meeting at the end of each Semester. If appropriate, some moderation of marks might be applied prior to final results being released.

Participation

Course content delivery will take the form of weekly on-campus lectures (recorded and available via echo360 on Wattle) and weekly on-campus tutorials (not recorded). Weekly consultations with the lecturer and the tutor(s) can be conducted in-person or over Zoom. If conducted over Zoom, a Zoom link will be provided on Wattle.

Examination(s)

Centrally scheduled examinations through Examinations, Graduations & Prizes will be timetabled prior to the examination period. Please check ANU Timetabling for further information.

Assessment Task 1

In-Tutorial Quiz 1

Students will be required to sit 3 in-tutorial quizzes throughout the semester, each worth 5%.

• These quizzes will be run according to the schedule in the "Class Structure and Content" section of this summary (unless otherwise stated by the lecturer).
• Each quiz is worth 5% and will be redeemable against the final exam, and will therefore count towards either 0% or 5% of a student's overall course grade (this will be calculated automatically to the benefit of the student).
• The quizzes will be 10 – 15 minutes in duration and held at the end of the tutorial.
• Students MUST sit the quiz in the tutorial they are enrolled in, otherwise the quiz will not count.
• The quiz content will be limited to the lecture material from the past two weeks. Students will receive their marked quizzes back in the tutorial the following week.
• This assessment task needs to be completed in pen (NOT PENCIL).

Note: Students are required to prepare worked solutions to tutorial questions, bring these solutions to tutorials, and be prepared to participate in tutorial discussions. This is an important step in preparing for the tutorial quizzes.

As the assessments are redeemable, extensions for quizzes are not permitted under any circumstances.

Assessment Task 2

In-Tutorial Quiz 2

Please see instructions for Assessment task 1 "In-Tutorial Quiz 1".

Assessment Task 3

Assignment 1

The assignment is to be done individually. The assignment is to be submitted online on Wattle via Turnitin. Turnitin is a text-matching software to check for plagiarism. University policies on plagiarism will be strictly enforced.

The assignment is worth 10% of the overall score in the course and is compulsory.

This assignment is designed to cover materials from Week 1 to 6. The assignment and further details will be made available by Week 6. It will be due on Wednesday in Week 7, 4:00 pm. There will be a mix of numerical calculation questions, theoretical proofs, and software implementation.

Assessment Task 4

In-Tutorial Quiz 3

Please see instructions for Assessment task 1 "In-Tutorial Quiz 1".

Assessment Task 5

Assignment 2

Students will be asked to source a data set of their choice, and will be required to conduct exploratory data analysis and run statistical hypothesis test(s) to answer the research question(s) of their choice based on their chosen data set. Detailed instructions will be made available on Wattle by the end of Week 4. 

The assignment is to be done individually. The assignment is to be submitted online on Wattle via Turnitin. Turnitin is a text-matching software to check for plagiarism. University policies on plagiarism will be strictly enforced.

The assignment is worth 20% of the overall score in the course and is compulsory.

Late submissions of the assignment without an approved extension from the course convenor will not be accepted. 

The assignment will be due in Week 11 on Wednesday 16 Oct by 4:00pm.

The assignment will be returned by Wednesday 30 Oct. Short individual feedback will be provided online along with the grade.

Please use the Harvard referencing style https://www.anu.edu.au/students/academic-skills/academic-integrity/referencing/harvard.

Assessment Task 6

Final Exam

The final examination is worth 65% of the final raw score and will be centrally invigilated and held on campus in person. Examination materials and conditions will be notified to all students no later than Week 10 of the semester. The exam will be centrally timetabled, and details of the final examination timetable will be made available on the ANU Timetabling website.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a core part of the ANU culture as a community of scholars. The University’s students are an integral part of that community. The academic integrity principle commits all students to engage in academic work in ways that are consistent with, and actively support, academic integrity, and to uphold this commitment by behaving honestly, responsibly and ethically, and with respect and fairness, in scholarly practice.

The University expects all staff and students to be familiar with the academic integrity principle, the Academic Integrity Rule 2021, the Policy: Student Academic Integrity and Procedure: Student Academic Integrity, and to uphold high standards of academic integrity to ensure the quality and value of our qualifications.

The Academic Integrity Rule 2021 is a legal document that the University uses to promote academic integrity, and manage breaches of the academic integrity principle. The Policy and Procedure support the Rule by outlining overarching principles, responsibilities and processes. The Academic Integrity Rule 2021 commences on 1 December 2021 and applies to courses commencing on or after that date, as well as to research conduct occurring on or after that date. Prior to this, the Academic Misconduct Rule 2015 applies.

 

The University commits to assisting all students to understand how to engage in academic work in ways that are consistent with, and actively support academic integrity. All coursework students must complete the online Academic Integrity Module (Epigeum), and Higher Degree Research (HDR) students are required to complete research integrity training. The Academic Integrity website provides information about services available to assist students with their assignments, examinations and other learning activities, as well as understanding and upholding academic integrity.

Online Submission

You will be required to electronically sign a declaration as part of the submission of your assignment. Please keep a copy of the assignment for your records. Unless an exemption has been approved by the Associate Dean (Education) submission must be through Turnitin.

Hardcopy Submission

Hardcopy submission will not be permitted.

Late Submission

No late submission of assessment tasks will be permitted unless an extension with a new submission date and time has been approved by the Convenor. If an assessment task is not submitted by the due date, a mark of 0 will be awarded.

Referencing Requirements

The Academic Skills website has information to assist you with your writing and assessments. The website includes information about Academic Integrity including referencing requirements for different disciplines. There is also information on Plagiarism and different ways to use source material. Any use of artificial intelligence must be properly referenced. Failure to properly cite use of Generative AI will be considered a breach of academic integrity.

Returning Assignments

Short individual feedback on assignments will be provided online via Turnitin along with the grade.

Extensions and Penalties

Extensions and late submission of assessment pieces are covered by the Student Assessment (Coursework) Policy and Procedure. Extensions may be granted for assessment pieces that are not examinations or take-home examinations. If you need an extension, you must request an extension in writing on or before the due date. If you have documented and appropriate medical evidence that demonstrates you were not able to request an extension on or before the due date, you may be able to request it after the due date.

Resubmission of Assignments

No resubmission of the assignment will be permitted after the due date and time.

Privacy Notice

The ANU has made a number of third party, online, databases available for students to use. Use of each online database is conditional on student end users first agreeing to the database licensor’s terms of service and/or privacy policy. Students should read these carefully. In some cases student end users will be required to register an account with the database licensor and submit personal information, including their: first name; last name; ANU email address; and other information.
In cases where student end users are asked to submit ‘content’ to a database, such as an assignment or short answers, the database licensor may only use the student’s ‘content’ in accordance with the terms of service – including any (copyright) licence the student grants to the database licensor. Any personal information or content a student submits may be stored by the licensor, potentially offshore, and will be used to process the database service in accordance with the licensors terms of service and/or privacy policy.
If any student chooses not to agree to the database licensor’s terms of service or privacy policy, the student will not be able to access and use the database. In these circumstances students should contact their lecturer to enquire about alternative arrangements that are available.

Distribution of grades policy

Academic Quality Assurance Committee monitors the performance of students, including attrition, further study and employment rates and grade distribution, and College reports on quality assurance processes for assessment activities, including alignment with national and international disciplinary and interdisciplinary standards, as well as qualification type learning outcomes.

Since first semester 1994, ANU uses a grading scale for all courses. This grading scale is used by all academic areas of the University.

Support for students

The University offers students support through several different services. You may contact the services listed below directly or seek advice from your Course Convener, Student Administrators, or your College and Course representatives (if applicable).

• ANU Health, safety & wellbeing for medical services, counselling, mental health and spiritual support
• ANU Accessibility for students with a disability or ongoing or chronic illness
• ANU Dean of Students for confidential, impartial advice and help to resolve problems between students and the academic or administrative areas of the University
• ANU Academic Skills supports you make your own decisions about how you learn and manage your workload.
• ANU Counselling promotes, supports and enhances mental health and wellbeing within the University student community.
• ANUSA supports and represents all ANU students