Deliver A Curriculum With Appropriate Discipline Specific Skill Sets
The curriculum will provide students with opportunities to develop the skills typically required of professionals in the area of study.
Objective
Foundation Areas In Probability And Statistics
Students will have a working knowledge of the foundational topics including regression analysis, design of experiments, multivariate analysis, Bayesian analysis, biostatistics, quality control, nonparametric statistics, sampling theory, and statistical computing.
Indicator
Comprehensive Oral Examination
A comprehensive oral examination, given by a committee of four faculty members, will be administered to candidates for the degree of M.S. in Statistics which will examine the candidate's knowledge of the primary areas of concentration within the program, as well as the candidates own communicative abilities. The committee will then judge the candidates' knowledge of the material according to a previously agreed upon rubric with three levels of comparison: High Pass, Pass, and Fail.
Criterion
Mathematical Statistics
All candidates will receive a mark of either "High Pass" or "Pass" for the Mathematical Statistics component of the comprehensive oral exam.
Finding
Mathematical Statistics Component Results
6 out of 6 candidates received a mark of either "High Pass" or "Pass" for the Mathematical Statistics component of the comprehensive oral exam. Included in the rubric are two main areas that students struggled with: the ability to draw connections across courses and the ability to describe real world scenarios in which various statistical methods are appropriate. Students struggled with these two areas specifically the second one.
Criterion
Design Of Experiments
All candidates will receive a mark of either "High Pass" or "Pass" for the Design of Experiments component of the comprehensive oral exam. The rubric used is the same one shown in the "Mathematical Statistics" criterion.
Finding
Design Of Experiments Component Results
6 out of 6 candidates received a mark of either "High Pass" or "Pass" for the Design of Experiments component of the comprehensive oral exam.
Criterion
Mulitvariate Analysis
All candidates will receive a mark of either "High Pass" or "Pass" for the Multivariate Analysis component of the comprehensive oral exam. The rubric used is the same one shown in the "Mathematical Statistics" criterion.
Finding
Multivariate Analysis Component Results
6 out of 6 candidates received a mark of either "High Pass" or "Pass" for the Multivariate Analysis component of the comprehensive oral exam.
Criterion
Regression Analysis
All candidates will receive a mark of either "High Pass" or "Pass" for the Regression Analysis component of the comprehensive oral exam. The rubric used is the same one shown in the "Mathematical Statistics" criterion.
Finding
Regression Analysis Component Results
6 out of 6 candidates received a mark of either "High Pass" or "Pass" for the Regression Analysis component of the comprehensive oral exam.
Action
Future Oral Examinations.
Faculty believe oral examinations are an effective way of meauring what a student has learned during his/her program of work at SHSU. These exams will continue to be used in the foreseeable future. Since students struggled with the ability to draw connections across courses and the ability to describe real world scenarios in which various statistical methods are appropriate, the department plans to emphasize such discussions across the course offerings. Additionally, we are exploring the idea of offering an advanced methods course that addresses the application of a wide variety of statistical procedures. A second problem we found was that because of a limited number of TA positions, the department was forced to offer core courses every other year. Last year, our graduating students were still completing two of their core courses at the time of the orals. That did not allow us to test their retention and seriously constricted the times that we could conduct the testing. This year we are ensuring that all core courses will be taken earlier in the degree program.
Goal
Deliver A Curriculum That Emphasizes Communication Skills
The curriculum will provide students with opportunities to develop the appropriate speaking and writing skills to function as a professional in the area.
Objective
Communicating Mathematical Ideas - Oral
Description Students will be able to prepare and deliver oral presentations of mathematical material. Students will also devlop the ability to critique problems, theorems and proofs presented by other mathematicians.
Indicator
Comprehensive Oral Exam
A comprehensive oral examination, given by a committee of four faculty members, will be administered to candidates for the degree of M.S. in Statistics which will examine the candidate's knowledge of the primary areas of concentration within the program, as well as the candidates own communicative abilities. The committee will then judge the candidates' ability to effectively communicate mathematical ideas according to a previously agreed upon rubric with three levels of comparison: High Pass, Pass, and Fail.
Criterion
Communication Assessment
All candidates will receive a communication rating of either "High Pass" or "Pass" by the members of the examining committee during the comprehensive oral exam.
Finding
Communication Assessment Results
6 out of 6 candidates received a communication rating of either "High Pass" or "Pass" by the members of the examining committee during the comprehensive oral exam.
Action
Future Oral Examinations.
Faculty believe oral examinations are an effective way of meauring what a student has learned during his/her program of work at SHSU. These exams will continue to be used in the foreseeable future. Since students struggled with the ability to draw connections across courses and the ability to describe real world scenarios in which various statistical methods are appropriate, the department plans to emphasize such discussions across the course offerings. Additionally, we are exploring the idea of offering an advanced methods course that addresses the application of a wide variety of statistical procedures. A second problem we found was that because of a limited number of TA positions, the department was forced to offer core courses every other year. Last year, our graduating students were still completing two of their core courses at the time of the orals. That did not allow us to test their retention and seriously constricted the times that we could conduct the testing. This year we are ensuring that all core courses will be taken earlier in the degree program.