6 ECTS credits
152 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 2023741ANR for all students in the 1st semester at a (A) Bachelor - preliminary level.

Semester
1st semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Impossible
Grading method
Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
Can retake in second session
Yes
Taught in
Dutch
Faculty
Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool
Department
Applied economics
Educational team
Ellen Van Droogenbroeck (course titular)
Activities and contact hours
24 contact hours Lecture
4 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
130 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
Course Content

This course is designed to introduce students to quantitative research methods, including both descriptive statistics and elementary inferential statistics. The aim is to develop students’ knowledge and skills in the field of quantitative research methods in preparation for the independent processing, interpretation and reporting of collected data (in the context of the later master's thesis and business decisions). Further, the course also aims to develop student's ability to understand, assess and interpret existing quantitative research. This introductory course mainly emphasizes interpretation of statistical results over mathematical computation. An introduction to using SPSS, a statistical software, is provided.

This introductory statistics course consists of nine parts. The first part provides an introduction to statistics and statistical concepts. The second part sheds light on displaying and describing data. The third part discusses the principle of hypothesis testing. It discusses the fundamentals of inferential statistics and the logic behind the statistical reasoning process. The fourth part discusses difference and variance tests. The fifth and sixth part focus on correlation and regression. In parts seven and eight, non-parametric tests and logistic regression are being discussed. A final part wraps up the course by discussing how to choose the right statistical test given the data available.

Course material
Digital course material (Required) : (1) Video tutorials; (2) Oefeningen (incl. oplossingen); (3) Aanvullend studiemateriaal (zoals o.a. videoclips, boekhoofdstukken, academische papers) ter ondersteuning van het leerproces, Worden beschikbaar gesteld op het digitaal leerplatform
Handbook (Recommended) : Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics, Salkind, N. J. and Frey, B. B., 7th edition, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 9781544381855, 2019
Handbook (Recommended) : A Step-By-Step Introduction to Statistics for Business, Lander, R. N., 2nd edition, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 9781473948112, 2018
Handbook (Recommended) : Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics, Field, A., 5th edition, London, Sage Publications, 9781526419521, 2017
Additional info

Not applicable.

Learning Outcomes

General competentions

The objective of this course is to clearly present elementary concepts and techniques of quantitative research methods, including both descriptives and inferential statistics. The focus of the course is mainly the interpretation of statistical analyses. Further the course introduces SPSS.

  • The student describes, explains and applies key elements of descriptive and inferential statistics.
  • The student describes, explains, computes and interprets measures of central tendency .
  • The student describes, explains, computes and interprets measures of variability.
  • The student describes, explains, analyses and interprets elementary quantitative research methods (such as t-test, ANOVA, correlation and regression).
  • The student uses regression analysis to make predictions.
  • The student selects appropriate elementary quantitative research methods for answering a research question.
  • The student performs elementary statistical analyses using SPSS.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 85% of the final mark.
Other Exam determines 15% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Exam Written with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 85% of the final mark.

Within the Other Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Intermediate Assignments with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 15% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

Throughout the course, students will be asked to complete and submit several homework assignments.

The component "homework assignments" cannot be resumed in the second session. No replacement assignment will be organised. The grade on this component is transferred from the first to the second session, but is not transferred to the following academic year. If the homework assignments were not carried out during the semester, the grade on this component will be zero in the first and second exam session. As such the final grade will be limited to a maximum of 85% out of 20. Homework assignments have strict due dates. No grades will be assigned in case of late submission.

The written exam consists of open questions and multiple-choice questions. The latter will be graded by positive scoring using a ‘Higher Pass Mark’ (standard setting). So, no points will be deducted for a wrong answer. On the other hand, the possibility of getting a correct answer by guessing will be incorporated in the final score by increasing the pass mark. The exact ‘Higher Pass Mark’ for the exam and the exact conversion table will be communicated in writing on Canvas and in the exam instructions. 

Allowed unsatisfactory mark
The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context

This offer is part of the following study plans:
Bridging Programme Master of Science in Management: Track 1 (only offered in Dutch)
Bridging Programme Master of Science in Management: Track 2 (only offered in Dutch)
Bridging Programme Master of Teaching in Economics: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Preparatory Programme Master of Science in Management: Academische Master (only offered in Dutch)
Preparatory Programme Master of Science in Management: Academische Bachelor (only offered in Dutch)