Editing User:Aaronshaw/Stats course (section)

=== Weekly problem sets and participation ===

Each week I will post a problem set. Some of these will be taken from the textbooks and some will not. They will include:

* '''Statistics questions''' about statistical concepts, principles, and interpretation.
* '''Programming challenges''' that you must solve using R.
* '''Empirical paper questions''' about other assigned readings. 

You should submit your solutions to the programming challenges ahead of each class session. While I will not grade them, we will spend a good chunk of class going through the answers to the assignment due on that day.

Because randomness is extremely important in statistics, I will use a small R program to '''randomly call on''' students to walk through your answer to statistics questions and empirical paper questions in class. We'll then discuss the answers, address points of confusion, and consider alternative approaches as a group.

For the programming challenges, you should submit code for your solutions before class (more on how in a moment) so we can walk through the material together. If you get completely stuck on a problem, that's okay, but please share whatever code you have so that you can tell us what you did and what you were thinking.

Coming to class will be profoundly important to learning the material and to your final grade. Although the problem sets will not be graded, it is critical that you be present and able to discuss your answers to each of the questions. Your ability to do so will figure prominently in your participation grade for the course (40% of your final grade). More on

I strongly encourage you to form groups to work on the problem sets if you find that helpful; however, you must still submit your work individually and respond to my cold-call prompts in class individually to help ensure that you learn and understand the material.

I evaluate participation along four dimensions: attendance, preparation, engagement, and contribution. These are quite similar to the dimensions described in the "Participation Rubric" section of [https://mako.cc/teaching/assessment.html Benjamin Mako Hill's assessment page] and [https://reagle.org/joseph/zwiki/Teaching/Assessment/Participation.html Joseph Reagle's participation assessment rubric]. Exceptional participation means excelling along all four dimensions. Please note that participation ≠ talking more and I encourage all of us to seek [https://reagle.org/joseph/zwiki/Teaching/Best_Practices/Learning/Balance_in_Discussion.html balance in our classroom discussions].