The course introduces the main descriptive statistics, which are more and more used both in business and economics studies. These concepts constitute the basis of more advanced and applied statistical methods, as for example data mining, big data and web scraping. Theory will be illustrated by means of real data ets which will be discussed during the lectures. The statistical concepts are introduced with simple examples, informally described and then formally defined by means of definitions. Their theoretical properties will be stated. The practical applications will be critically examined.

1.  Univariate descriptive statistics. Introductory concepts (population, sample, case, variable), distributions (simple, frequencies, densities), measures of location (mean, mode, median), measures of scatter (variance, entropy, concentration), measures of shape (skewness, kurtosis), graphical displays (hystogram, Pareto chart, box-plot).

2.  Bivariate descriptive statistics. Bivariate distributions (contingency tables, scatter plot, stereogram), association (expected frequencies, contingencies, chi-square, joint entropy), concordance (Kendall's tau, Spearman's rho), regression (group means, conditional entropy, Goodman and Kruskal lambda), simple linear regression (definition, residuals, variants).

Mathematics

1.  Knowledge and under standing. The student will know the basic statistical methods and their use in marketing strategies.

2.  Applying knowledge and understanding. The student will be able to explore data sets and detect their latent structures.

3.  Making judgements. The student will be able to choose the most appropriate methods for data exploration and to evaluate the quality of the obtained results.

4.  Communication skills. The student will learn to communicate the results of the exploratory analyses by means of graphs, tables, slides and reports.

5.  Learning skills. The student will be able to connect the contents of the course with the methods learnt in other courses or by self-teaching. 

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Notes written by the lectures. They include solutions to exercises, worked exercises, summary schemes, examination rules, fake exams.

Teaching

In the classes there will be the following activities. Presentation of the theory, discussion of real data sets, informal checking of learning progresses. Teching is interactive, in order to motivate student participation.

Innovative teaching methods

Flipped classroom

Attendance

Class attendance is not mandatory but it is recommended.

Course books

Notes written by the lectures. They include solutions to exercises, worked exercises, summary schemes, examination rules, fake exams.

Assessment

The exam objectively assesses the Learning Achievements. It includes thirty exercises to be solved. Each correctly solved exercise corresponds to a point and the sum of all points constitutes the final mark. The student who has scored thirty points may ask for the mention of excellence. In such a case, the teacher asks the student three questions related to the topics described in the Notes. The student who answers to the three questions is awarded the note of excellence. The student's mark is lowered by a point for each question incorrectly answered.

The exam includes exercises to be solved. Each exercise recalls a concept, which must be known to obtain the correct solution (knowledge and understanding). Solutions also require the knowledge of the appropriate operational rules (applying knowledge and understanding). The choice between different solving methods depends on the information available to the student, who must use them critically (making judgments). Effective communication of the solutions requires the communication skill taught in the course (communication skills). The efficiency in solving the exercises will be increased if the student will adapt to her/his own personal features the solution method taught in the course (learning skills). 

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

Individual study

Attendance

Class attendance is not mandatory but it is recommended.

Course books

Notes written by the lectures. They include solutions to exercises, worked exercises, summary schemes, examination rules, fake exams. 

Assessment

The exam objectively assesses the Learning Achievements. It includes thirty exercises to be solved. Each correctly solved exercise corresponds to a point and the sum of all points constitutes the final mark. The student who has scored thirty points may ask for the mention of excellence. In such a case, the teacher asks the student three questions related to the topics described in the Notes. The student who answers to the three questions is awarded the note of excellence. The student's mark is lowered by a point for each question incorrectly answered.

The exam includes exercises to be solved. Each exercise recalls a concept, which must be known to obtain the correct solution (knowledge and understanding). Solutions also require the knowledge of the appropriate operational rules (applying knowledge and understanding). The choice between different solving methods depends on the information available to the student, who must use them critically (making judgments). Effective communication of the solutions requires the communication skill taught in the course (communication skills). The efficiency in solving the exercises will be increased if the student will adapt to her/his own personal features the solution method taught in the course (learning skills). 

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

The student can ask to take the exam in English and to have textboks in English.