ST8001 Introduction to statistical concepts and methods

Module CodeST8001
Module NameIntroduction to statistical concepts and methods
ECTS Weighting[1]10 ECTS
Semester taughtSemester 1
Module CoordinatorProf. Mimi Zhang

Module Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate a systematic understanding of the fundamental inferential ideas which underpin statistical methods
  2. Demonstrate a broad understanding of the role of statistical ideas and methods covering both data collection and data analysis
  3. Demonstrate a competence in the use of basic statistical tools: data summaries, graphs, estimation and hypothesis testing

Module Content

Specific topics addressed in this module include:

  • Data summaries and graphs Statistical models
  • Sampling distributions confidence intervals and tests
  • Comparative experiments: tests, confidence intervals, design issues

Teaching and Learning Methods

All teaching activities will be delivered through Blackboard.

Assessment Details

The module is assessed by a real-time online examination (100%).

Assessment ComponentBrief Description% of total
ExaminationRealtime online100

Reassessment Details

Re-assessment is also by real-time online examination (100%).

Contact Hours and Indicative Student Workload

Contact Hours (scheduled hours per student over full module), broken down by: 31 hours
Lecture 10 hours
laboratory 0 hours
tutorial 21 hours
Independent study (outside scheduled contact hours), broken down by: 58 hours
preparation for classes and review of material (including preparation for examination, if applicable) 55 hours
completion of assessments (including examination, if applicable) 3 hours
Total Hours 89 hours

Recommended Reading List

Core reading materials. The core reading material is the module study notes. These texts complement that material:

  • Moore, McCabe and Craig, “Introduction to the Practice of Statistics”, 9th edition, published by Freeman.
  • Carlson and Winquist, “An Introduction to Statistics: An Active Learning Approach”, 2nd edition, published by Sage.

Online reading materials. There are several free online texts in statistics that cover most of the material in this module. This one covers almost all of the module content:

Supplementary reading or similar materials:

  • Grimmett and Welsh, “Probability: an Introduction”, published byOxford University Press.
  • Hogg, McKean and Craig, “Mathematical Statistics: an Introduction”, 8th edition.
  • Spiegelhalter, “The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data Hardcover – Illustrated”, published by Basic Books.
  • James, Witten, Hastie and Tibshirani, “An Introduction to Statistical Learning: with Applications in R”, published by Springer.
  • Silver, “The Signal and the Noise”, published by Penguin.
  • Taleb, “The Black Swan”, published by Allen Lane

Module Pre-requisites

Prerequisite modules: None.

Other/alternative non-module prerequisites: None

Module Website

Blackboard