Requirements to Pass this Unit: To pass this unit, you must:

1. Attempt all assessment tasks
2. Achieve a total mark equal to or greater than 50%

Participation in learning activities:

We strongly encourage all students to participate actively in all learning activities. Regular engagement is crucial for your success in this unit, as these activities provide opportunities to deepen your understanding of the material, collaborate with peers, and receive valuable feedback from instructors to assist in completing the unit assessments. Your active participation enhances your learning experience and contributes to a vibrant and dynamic learning environment for everyone.

Classes:

Weekly class participation is expected throughout the session. Students are expected to attend all classes and participate in activities. Participation in all classes will enhance your chances of success in the unit, as these are where we engage with the unit material via active learning and prepare and revise for other unit assessments.

Late Assessment Submission Penalty:

• 5% penalty per day: If you submit your assessment late, 5% of the total possible marks will be deducted for each day (including weekends), up to 7 days.
  • Example 1 (out of 100): If you score 85/100 but submit 20 hours late, you will lose 5 marks and receive 80/100.
  • Example 2 (out of 30): If you score 27/30 but submit 1 day late, you will lose 1.5 marks and receive 25.5/30.
• After 7 days: Submissions more than 7 days late will receive a mark of 0.
• Extensions:
  • Automatic short extension: Some assessments are eligible for automatic short extension. You can only apply for an automatic short extension before the due date.
  • Special Consideration: If you need more time due to serious issues and for any assessments that are not eligible for Short Extension, you must apply for Special Consideration.

Need help? Review the Special Consideration page HERE

Assessments where Late Submissions will be accepted. 

1. Generative AI Research Poster – YES, Standard Late Penalty applies 
2. Excel-based practical test in class – NO, unless Special Consideration is granted 
3. Exam – NO, unless Special Consideration is granted 

Special Considerations: 

The Special Consideration Policy aims to support students impacted by short-term circumstances or events that are serious, unavoidable, and significantly disruptive and may affect their performance in assessment. If you experience circumstances or events that affect your ability to complete the assessments in this unit on time, please inform the convenor and submit a Special Consideration request through https://connect.mq.edu.au/s/.

Classes

The statistics content will be delivered in classes from Week 1 to Week 13 (except Week 9 where the test takes place in Practical classes). Specifically, students should work through the following material every week:

• A 1-hour lecture – recorded Weeks 1–12.
• A 1-hour SGTA on the topics of the current or previous lectures – Weeks 1–13. 
• A 1-hour practical on the topics of the current or previous lectures – Weeks 1–13.

Enrolment can be managed using eStudent at: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/technology/systems/estudent.

Communication

We will communicate with you via your university email or through announcements on iLearn. You can also post queries to convenors on the iLearn discussion board or send them to your lecturers [or stat1170.admin@mq.edu.au] from your university email address.

Assistance

For help with any matters related to this unit, students should contact the appropriate department staff by emailing stat1170.admin@mq.edu.au.

Required and Recommended Texts and/or Materials

• Software:
  • Excel, a spreadsheet application from Microsoft's Office suite, is used in this unit. Students with Mac or Windows computers can download it from the student portal, which can be accessed from the Student IT services web page: http://students.mq.edu.au/it_services/. Students using other operating systems might find Google Sheets or OpenOffice Calc a workable alternative.

Recommended textbook for this unit:

• Modern Statistics: An introduction, Don McNeil and Jenny Middledorp (ISBN 9781486007011). 

Other recommended reading:

• Introduction to the Practice of Statistics, Moore, D.S. and McCabe, G. P (W.H. Freeman)
• Statistics without Tears by Rowntree (Penguin)
• Mind on Statistics by Utts & Heckard (Thomson, 2004)
• Elementary Statistics by Johnson & Kuby (Thomson, 2007)
• Statistics: The Art & Science of Learning from Data by Agresti & Franklin (Prentice Hall, 2007)
• The Statistical Sleuth by Ramsey and Schafer (Duxbury, 2002).

Technology Used and Required

iLearn (a version of Moodle) is used to deliver course material and can be accessed at http://ilearn.mq.edu.au.

Prizes

The Don McNeil Prize for Introductory Statistics is named in honour of the foundation Professor of Statistics at Macquarie University. The prize is awarded twice per year to the student with the best overall performance in a first-year statistics unit.

Unit Schedule

We value student feedback to be able to continually improve the way we offer our units. As such we encourage students to provide constructive feedback via student surveys, to the teaching staff directly, or via the FSE Student Experience & Feedback link in the iLearn page. Student feedback from the previous offering of this unit was very positive overall, with students pleased with the clarity around assessment requirements and the level of support from teaching staff. As such, no change to the delivery of the unit is planned, however we will continue to strive to improve the level of support and the level of student engagement.