Introductory Statistics - 2e
Barbara Illowsky, De Anza College
Susan Dean, De Anza College
Daniel Birmajer, Nazareth College
Bryan Blount, Kentucky Wesleyan College
Sheri Boyd, Rollins College
Matthew Einsohn, Prescott College
James Helmreich, Marist College
Lynette Kenyon, Collin County Community College
Sheldon Lee, Viterbo University
Jeff Taub, Maine Maritime Academy
Copyright Year: 2023
Last Update: 2024
ISBN 13: 9781961584327
Publisher: OpenStax
Language: English
Formats Available
Conditions of Use
Attribution
CC BY
Reviews
The text covers the topics of what any other introductory statistics text would cover. The example problems throughout the chapters may not be fancy, but still get the job done with well-organized and formatted tables and figures which appear to... read more
The text covers the topics of what any other introductory statistics text would cover. The example problems throughout the chapters may not be fancy, but still get the job done with well-organized and formatted tables and figures which appear to have been created using a graphics calculator. Each chapter is robust with exercises, try-it problems for the student to stop and practice/reflect on the content, a chapter review, homework problems, and solutions to the practice problems. There is an entire chapter dedicated to use of a TI-83 or TI-84 calculator with detailed instructions. The index of the text is well organized, and it is recommended to use the book in web format due to the highlighting tool available.
I did not encounter any staggering errata in my review of the text. However, I did not read every word and cross check every exercise and solution. I'd imagine errata would be addressed periodically as the text has been updated to a 2nd edition. Also, the main page of the text has an errata page dedicated to errors found and it is currently active as I see a dated submission of the same day I happen to be writing this review 4/4/2024.
Every chapter contains exercise problems that are based on real-life examples which shows a good attention to detail in how the topics are delivered. The mathematical symbols and typesetting are clear and match up with any advanced mathematical text of known importance. In fact, since this text incorporates the use of current technology (e.g., TI-84+ calculator), in some ways it is better than a more formal stats text.
Some statistical concepts require the use of current technology for access to graphical figures which help support the understanding of various topics throughout the text.
I didn't like how some of the sections go straight into a Stats Lab problem without any buildup or introduction to the relation of the problem to the topics covered in the associated chapter (e.g. 8.4 Confidence Interval (Home Costs)).
This text is very well organized. As I mentioned, every chapter has many sections of independent topics along with sections dedicated to Practice Problems, Homework, and even Solutions to the Practice Problems. There is even a section dedicated to References which is good to have in case you wanted to find out where some of the data was collected from, but also to delve more into the data from its source.
I didn't like how some of the sections go straight into a Stats Lab problem without any buildup or introduction to the relation of the problem to the topics covered in the associated chapter (e.g. 8.4 Confidence Interval (Home Costs)). Otherwise, every chapter is delivered in the same fashion.
The web-based text utilizes a Highlighting feature which allows an account holder access to their previously highlighted text for a quick review of their notes. I personally would find this very useful as I prefer to highlight text as I read it for a note later. The highlight feature also allows a few different colors and a separate web page to review all of the highlighted text in one place instead of having to scroll and click around the entire text.
As I mentioned before, it's best to read the book in web form, so that could be a draw back if you were using the pdf form. However, the pdf form has all of the same content as the web based form. Personally, I prefer the pdf form if I want to scroll through the pages of the chapter instead of having to click next repeatedly as I scan through the sections of the text.
I found that the text to be well written (in English).
It's a statistics text with many varied examples across a plethora of relatable topics which allow for the discovery of statistical methods. I found the examples related to food or athletics to be most interesting.
These OpenStax textbooks now have Instructor and Student Resources to supplement the experience. Also, there are now Technology Partners that have developed their own content to supplement the text with auto graded assignments and LMS interfaces.
The text provides the necessary details of the most important topics in an introductory statistics course without going too deep into details or calculations. read more
The text provides the necessary details of the most important topics in an introductory statistics course without going too deep into details or calculations.
Formula 10 in Appendix F has the bounds flipped on the gamma function’s integral. It should go from 0 to infinity.
Perhaps using the TI calculators is now a thing of the past. I can understand if the authors would like to keep the statistical concepts in the focus rather than the tool, but today statistics can hardly be done in the workplace or academia without software like R or SPSS.
I like the dotplot introduction to give students an easy visualization and invitation to statistics
I found the section at the end listing the mathematical notation to be quite a helpful reference
It has a similar format to most statistics textbooks I’ve seen. Perhaps the chapter on descriptive statistics could be broken down further into a graphical chapter and a numerical chapter.
The text has clear organization and supplements new concepts with good examples
I found it quite nice to have the book in pdf or online format. The various formats are helpful for different students’ learning styles
I did not see any
examples were great
- In the descriptive statistics section, it could also include examples of heatmaps and pictographs because those have become very popular
- In the section about exponential distributions, some more justification can be provided for the memoryless property. For example, this sentence made me question the utility of the distribution: “In this case it means that an old part is not any more likely to break down at any particular time than a brand new part.” It is unintuitive for students to think this so some justification is needed for why thinking like this makes sense.
- Introduction of Chapter 6: In reference to the normal distribution, the authors said, “The probability density function is a rather complicated function.” I would rather say it is surprisingly elegant so students also gain an appreciation for its formulation 😊
- Key terms section at the end of Chapter 7: not sure why there’s a paragraph for exponential distributions again when they were already discussed in 5.3
- In chapter 11, it may be worth commenting briefly on how the chi-squared test of independence is related to the chi-squared test of association
- Overall, a fantastic resource that is open and free for anyone who wants to self-study statistics well. Thank you!
This book covers a broad category of statistics and statistical techniques, some of which I just ended up skipping. read more
This book covers a broad category of statistics and statistical techniques, some of which I just ended up skipping.
This book is very accurate.
As an instructor in a psychology department, there were a lot of things in this text that I didn't end up needing or using.
I think some of the terminology, while accurate, was difficult for some of my students to understand.
Good internal consistency in terminology and formulas.
Pretty good modularity, as i only assigned part of each chapter for readings.
I think the organization is great. It starts off with the background things one needs, such as what a random variable is and what distributions are, then advances through more complex information regarding inferential statistics. I might change the order of a few of the chapters towards the end of the book, but that would be all.
There are a lot of "Box"es that almost seem necessary for students to read/interact with to get the knowledge in them. I would just make those part of the plain text.
No grammar errors that I caught.
I don't think it referred to race at all.
This book is a great resource for teaching intro stats. However, I do think that the next time I teach this material, I will be switching to Learning Statistics with R or one of its variants. That is not because I think this textbook is bad by any means, but it actually is just too general in its approach. I want an open text book that is more geared towards psychology students, rather than general statistical use.
The text covers multiple areas that are necessary for students to grasp a basic knowledge of statistics. However, I would have liked to see the inclusion of information for some kind of computer-assisted analysis of descriptive statistics,... read more
The text covers multiple areas that are necessary for students to grasp a basic knowledge of statistics. However, I would have liked to see the inclusion of information for some kind of computer-assisted analysis of descriptive statistics, contingency tables, z-test, t-tests, ANOVA, linear regression, and chi-square. Whether these analyses were conducted via excel, SPSS, some free online calculator, or R, these would have been helpful as I end up using other resources in order to include computer-assisted analyses to familiarize my students with these processes. The index is comprehensive. However, some information included in both the main sections and glossary is somewhat confusing, e.g., the data set(s), of which there are only two, are not fully explained and are somewhat unuseful for multiple forms of analysis practice.
I did not notice any errors in the accuracy of the book. However, the supplemental materials--in particular the lecture slides had a few slight errors.
While I do believe the book has excellent longevity, I maintain that adding support information on computer-aided analyses for each of the sections using Excel, SPSS, R, or some free online calculator would make the book much more relevant and more attractive to instructors who would prefer a book that includes such information. I do believe the way the book is arranged and formatted aids in ease of updating. With that stated, some questions discuss elections, polling or other issues that do not account for the current influence and uses of social media, the internet, and smart phones.
The text is somewhat accessible. I do not believe the way the different areas of text, examples, and explanations are set up within the book are as accessible, clear, and readable as they could be. In fact, the format of the text and examples at times makes the book difficult to follow. As stated in a previous section, some information included in both the main sections and glossary is somewhat confusing, e.g., formulas, concepts, and the data set(s)(of which there are only two) are not fully explained and are somewhat unuseful or confusing without further explanation from the instructor and examples from other texts, this is particularly relevant to the "try this, and "let's practice" examples.
The text is extremely consistent in terms of terminology and framework. Although, in my opinion, the terminology and framework are not as accessible to college-level intro stats students as it could be.
I believe the modularity of the reading sections and the inclusion of a course pack that can be uploaded to Canvas or Blackboard is extremely helpful. I can assign students to read only one or two sections of a chapter, and I can mix and match sections from different chapters. I absolutely love the Modularity of this book.
The topics are presented in a logical and clear fashion. However, I believe the ordering of topics could be improved. For example, ANOVA should be presented after the chapter on 2-sample t-tests, and Normal Distribution should be presented after the chapter on probability.
The text is free from navigation issues and distortion of images. However, the images and other display features are not that aesthetically pleasing: most are presented as grey tables, etc.
I noted no grammatical errors in the text.
The text is not culturally offensive. However, the text is extremely insensitive. It does not account for alternative options for male/ female, and is not inclusive towards varied cultures and beliefs. Racial "minorities" are rarely mentioned in the text, and are not reflected in visuals.
1. I suggest alterations/ additions to the information in the text: in the form of some kind of computer-assisted analysis of descriptive statistics, contingency tables, z-test, t-tests, ANOVA, linear regression, and chi-square.
2. I do not believe the way the different areas of text, examples, and explanations are set up within the book are as accessible, clear, and readable as they could be. In fact, the format of the text and examples at times makes the book difficult to follow.
3. With regard to relevance, some questions discuss elections, polling, or other issues that do not account for the current influence and uses of social media, the internet, and smartphones.
4. The text is not culturally offensive, but it is extremely insensitive. It does not account for alternative options for male/ female, and is not inclusive towards varied cultures and beliefs. Racial "minorities" are rarely mentioned in the text and are not reflected in visuals.
In reviewing this material, it appears as though the text meets or exceeds the standards set for traditional textbooks for an Introductory Statistics course. The content appears to be comprehensive, accurate, and up to date. This text could be... read more
In reviewing this material, it appears as though the text meets or exceeds the standards set for traditional textbooks for an Introductory Statistics course. The content appears to be comprehensive, accurate, and up to date. This text could be used to teach an Elementary Statistics class and covers enough topics that it could be used for an additional course in Intermediate Statistics.
I have yet to find an error in any of the material.
The problems in the book are made in such a way that the text will not become obsolete. For example, they use general topics such as heights of people on a sport’s team instead of naming a specific team or year. This is good because the book can be used for a longer period of time.
The book gives the formal definitions and applicable theorems. For clarity, it then gives problems and examples to illustrate what these definitions and theorems actually mean so students can better understand them. The examples are provide students with a reasoning behind why we "need" the theorems to begin with and how Statistics can apply to their life.
Material is presented in an orderly way. It gives the definition and applicable theorems. It then gives problems and examples to illustrate what these definitions and theorems actually mean so students can better understand them.
The glossary and the table of contents are especially important aspects of online learning tools. This text makes it extremely easy to switch between different topics and navigate around the book. The book is broken up into sections that cover a specific topic, so it is easy to find material. This divides the material into smaller sections which helps students better learn the material and to not become overwhelmed.
The glossary and the table of contents are especially important aspects of online learning tools. This text makes it extremely easy to switch between different topics and navigate around the book. The book does go in a logical fashion from basic Statistics concepts/definitions to more complex ones.
Many students do not want to write in a physical textbook. This online book allows you to highlight sections and make notes while you are reading that you can easy access later without having to flip through the book to look for where you wrote notes. I have yet to find any interface issues.
I have yet to find any grammatical errors.
The text is not culturally insensitive as most problems are about “people” or “doctors” or “neighbors”. There is no reference to race, ethnicities, or backgrounds.
This appears to be a fabulous textbook. I look forward to investigating it further. I am also excited to apply some of the ideas, such as the group project problems, to my classes.
The book covers all the topics typically covered in an introductory statistics class, but the depth of the coverage is sometimes less than adequate. As an example, self-selected samples are described as "unreliable", but there's no mention of... read more
The book covers all the topics typically covered in an introductory statistics class, but the depth of the coverage is sometimes less than adequate. As an example, self-selected samples are described as "unreliable", but there's no mention of WHY. As another example, there book provides almost no intuition behind the (probability) Multiplication Rule and Addition Rule.
The content is generally accurate, but in a few places it's just plain wrong. For example, Figs. 8.2 and 8.3 attempt to explain confidence intervals using a graph of a normal curve centered on X-bar (the SAMPLE mean) and with the CONFIDENCE INTERVAL endpoints marked on the horizontal axis capturing the middle 90% of the normal distribution. What variable is this the distribution of?
Some of the data sets will become outdated with time, but I think that's true of any statistics textbook.
The clarity of the book is generally adequate, but explanations are often lacking, and there are numerous places where clarity could be improved upon. An example of this is using the same symbol to represent different things -- in Try It 3.13 (a probability problem), the letter S is used to represent an event, but everywhere else in the chapter, S is used to represent the sample space.
The text is generally internally consistent, but there are several inconsistencies. For example, in Chapter 2, sometimes the symbol used for the sample standard deviation is Sx (S with subscript x), other times it's just S (no subscript). As another example, sometimes the right side of the (probability) Multiplication Rule is written as P(B)P(A|B) and other times as P(A|B)P(B).
There are not any major problems with the modularity of the book that I could see.
The organization/structure/flow of the book is NOT well-thought-out.
There are numerous places where a term is used before it has been defined. For example, in Example 1.3 the term "simple random sample" is used before that term has even been defined. In Try It 1.10, a histogram is used before histograms have even been covered.
Furthermore, there are several instances where NEW ideas are introduced in the Chapter Review section. An example of this is describing the relative advantages and disadvantages of stem-and-leaf plots versus histograms in the Chapter 2 Review, but this isn't mentioned at all in the main body of the chapter. Another example of this (also in the Chapter 2 Review) is the introduction of grouped bar charts and stacked bar charts, neither of which is discussed in the main body of the chapter.
There are many other organizational deficiencies, too numerous to mention here.
I only saw only a few minor issues with the interface of the book, and they shouldn't distract or confuse the reader.
There are grammatical errors and typos, and in some cases, they can cause confusion. For example, the term "statistic of a sampling distribution" appears in multiple places (it's supposed to be "sampling distribution of a statistic"), including in a section header.
The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive, but it does not appear to me that the authors went out of their way to find examples that are particularly inclusive.
I do not plan on using this book for my classes in future semesters.
Most of the typical topics covered in an Introduction to Statistics class are all covered in reasonable detail. Basic descriptive statistics, constructing and reading various types of graphs and charts, an introduction to relevant concepts of... read more
Most of the typical topics covered in an Introduction to Statistics class are all covered in reasonable detail. Basic descriptive statistics, constructing and reading various types of graphs and charts, an introduction to relevant concepts of probability, and hypotheses testing. Notably, Bayes’ Rule is absent. Instructions for use of a TI-83/84 calculator are included, but no other technology is used. The data sets used in the text (including within the homework) do not seem to be provided anywhere in a format that would allow for easy use of technology such as Excel, Minitab, or R. The inclusion of a section on ethics in statistics and experimental design in the first chapter is a welcome feature.
The content is accurate.
Material is presented with some examples drawn from real-world data, but there could be more. Again, examples and homework problems utilizing data sets that are provided in a format (such as csv files) that could be read by a variety of statistics software would help greatly.
The clarity of the exposition within the sections is lacking. Explanations are terse, relying on the examples to illustrate the concepts. Definitions and theorems are not clearly indicated, but rather are often hidden within a paragraph. The key terms, chapter review, and formula review sections at the end of each chapter are helpful.
The notation and techniques introduces are consistent.
The modularity by chapter is typical of a book of this type. A flowchart of dependencies would help instructors, and is not provided.
The organization is typical of an introduction to statistics text.
The interface is standard and clear. The web version of the book takes advantage of HTML to show/hide solutions as appropriate in exercises for students to work through.
There are a number of errors in the mathematical typesetting which detract from the clarity of the book.
Examples are pulled from data for a range of subjects. The language used in the text is rather neutral.
If the instructor is careful to address the places where the book is not clear I think this will be a fine textbook. The inclass activities and lab assignments are very nice.
The textbook addresses the foundational concepts for statistics, including a robust discussion of sampling and descriptive statistics. Even for students who may not frequently utilize inferential statistics, the beginning chapters provide a wealth... read more
The textbook addresses the foundational concepts for statistics, including a robust discussion of sampling and descriptive statistics. Even for students who may not frequently utilize inferential statistics, the beginning chapters provide a wealth of knowledge about descriptive statistics and introductory probability concepts. The inferential statistics are quite comprehensive and organized logically based on the samples and means being compared. The concepts align with the several introductory educational statistics courses I have taught.
No errors or biases were identified.
The topics used in the examples span a diverse range of topics including higher education enrollment, high school sports, technology, research projects, business, politics, health care, and many everyday life examples (e.g., pizza delivery). Some of the dates mentioned in the scenarios are a bit dated (e.g., year 2008, iPhone 4s), but these do not impact the purpose of the example. Statistics do not become out of date, so there is not a concern about the relevancy of the content moving forward. The textbook does provide support for using a TI-83/84 calculator, which is quite nice to improve accessibility to the calculations required.
The writing is clear, accessible, and approachable to any reader regardless of their prior statistics knowledge and/or experience.
Terminology is clear and consistent. There are helpful glossaries at the end of each chapter to define the key terms used. Parenthetical clarifications are provided to ensure ideas are clear.
Each section has several subheadings to more clearly identify specific sections of the reading. Those sections are accessible as separate standalone readings that do not require readings of previous sections to understand them. The text uses several examples to clarify the concepts and does not overly refer to previous sections of the text.
The flow of topics is logical and appropriate for an introductory statistics course.
The PDF download is neat and clear. There is a digital table of contents that shows all of the chapters and subsections in the chapters that automatically navigate you to those sections. This makes it very easy to jump around to various parts of text with ease.
No grammatical errors were noticed.
Gender is presented as a binary (male/female) and is not inclusive of the full spectrum of gender identity. However, this issue is not relegated to only this text and is commonly present in most statistics textbooks. I believe a standalone discussion of inclusivity in research and statistics should be presented by the instructor to discuss the importance of inclusivity in research, but yet the practical issues this may cause for statistics (e.g., having inclusive categories for self-identification that may result in very small sample sizes that violate the statistical assumptions required for an inferential test). These discussions should be happening in the classroom to ensure students are engaging in ethical and culturally responsive research while also understanding the implications of such decisions.
Provides coverage of all the usual topics for an introductory statistics course along with extra topics that many courses will likely skip due to time constraints. read more
Provides coverage of all the usual topics for an introductory statistics course along with extra topics that many courses will likely skip due to time constraints.
I came across no errors or accuracy issues, and did not perceive any biases.
The text is relevant and up-to-date. It's introductory statistics, so I can't really imagine a text being "out-of-date" in this field. The one issue here may be that this text provides additional instruction for using a TI-83+ and/or TI-84 calculator. This may still be the preferred calculator for many students, but students many students may only rely on computer based analysis so the calculator instructions are less valuable.
The text is well written and comparable to the clarity of any other statistics textbook. This may be subject to students' preferred learning methods however, as this text heavily emphasizes examples to explain new concepts. Often rather than introducing the theory behind a new concept, then providing an example, the text often goes straight into an example and uses that example to show the theory.
The formulas and language are consistent throughout.
I skipped several sections within the text, and the flow of the material and explanations did not suffer from it.
Sometimes, the text over-uses examples as an introductory tool for new concepts. This may be helpful for some students, while other students may prefer an organization structure the first provides theory and formulas, and then offers an example. I think the heavy use of examples in the text is generally a good thing, however it can lead to formulas and theoretical concepts getting somewhat lost in those examples.
I experienced no interface issues with the text.
The text was well-written and free of grammatical errors.
I noticed no cultural biases or insensitivity issues.
I was happy with the textbook for an introductory statistics course that covered: descriptive statistics, probability, hypothesis testing, and simple linear regression. Stylistically, the text relies heavily on examples to explain the concepts. This provides a lot of chances for students to read applied examples, but can sometimes obscure the core concepts, theories, and formulas.
The textbook covers the chapters you would generally find in a one semester statistics course. It provides general coverage of the content areas including: descriptive statistics, probability, CLT, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, and... read more
The textbook covers the chapters you would generally find in a one semester statistics course. It provides general coverage of the content areas including: descriptive statistics, probability, CLT, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, and linear regression.
Content appears to be error-free and unbiased.
The content is up-to-date and, as with most statistics textbook, the material should remain relevant for an extended period of time.
The textbook provided simple, easy to follow examples.
Terminology and variables were consistent throughout the text.
The authors did a good job of providing both written and visual examples of the content.
The chapters followed from descriptive statistics and probability into more application based examples.
Charts and graphs were clear and provided additional insight into the problems presented.
Grammatical errors were not detected.
The examples were easy to follow and were based on content that is inclusive to students with diverse backgrounds.
Quite comprehensive as an introductory text for non-technical students. It touches on topics not usually seen in an introductory text (hypergeometric and Poisson distributions, e.g.) The index is an effective search tool for finding specific... read more
Quite comprehensive as an introductory text for non-technical students. It touches on topics not usually seen in an introductory text (hypergeometric and Poisson distributions, e.g.) The index is an effective search tool for finding specific topics. New terms are generally introduced at the beginnings of the chapters.
I noticed a very few minor inconsistencies in the tables, but on the whole the text is accurate and unbiased.
Content is in keeping with current society and technology and can be easily updated when the need arises. The modularity of the text allows for the easy rearrangement of the order of presentation.
It is easy for mathematics texts to lapse into jargon. That is not the case here. Topics are explained carefully and logically in a way that is easy to follow. The conclusions thus reached are abundantly clear.
The terminology used in the text is consistent from one chapter to the next. Especially appealing are the "Try It" problems that follow example problems, enabling the student to apply what was illustrated in the example
Each chapter follows from the one before and leads to the next, but if desired they can be rearranged without any loss in continuity. For example, I prefer to teach correlation and regression earlier in the course than it usually occurs, so I present Chapter 12 (Linear Regression and Correlation) between Chapter 3 (Probability Topics) and Chapter 4 (Discrete Random Variables). This change is mentioned in the preface as a possible rearrangement.
Topics are presented in the logical order one would expect. I especially appreciated the different problem sets (Practice, Homework and Bringing It Together) that present problems of increasing difficulty.
There are no interface issues. The charts and tables are appropriately sized and colored and easy to read.
I found no grammatical errors.
The text is apolitical. Some of the names mentioned in the problems appear to be the only cultural or ethnic references.
I have used this text the last three times I have taught the course, and I intend to use it again. I especially appreciate the inclusion of Texas Instruments calculators when appropriate. The guidelines and step-by-step procedures are a great help. Another help is the set of practice tests and finals in Appendix B. The text is not as slickly produced as those from the major publishers, but it is still complete and very accessible to students. And as an Open Source text, there is never any excuse not to have a copy!
This OER book covers all the required topics as an introductory statistics text. The content is well presented using examples, lots of exercises problems. After examples, there are Try it questions provided. This gives the students chance to check... read more
This OER book covers all the required topics as an introductory statistics text. The content is well presented using examples, lots of exercises problems. After examples, there are Try it questions provided. This gives the students chance to check their understandings of the topics immediately. TI calculators are widely used in this text, so some formulas or complicated mathematical theories are not introduced. For Non-math majors, I would say this is good and give the students chance to focus on the application part of the theory. TI-calculator command descriptions are included within examples. Students can easily follow what is taught.
Most of the contents are accurate and presented very well.
Content is up-to-date, but not in a way that will quickly make the text obsolete within a short period of time. The text is written and/or arranged in such a way that necessary updates will be relatively easy and straightforward to implement.
It is easy for me as an instructor to read the book since I already know the fundamental concepts for probabilities and statistics. However, there are some symbols that are not commonly used in the other same level statistics book. For example, chapter 10 presents how to calculate confidence interval. EBM is used to represent” margin of error”. This 3-word symbol is not user friendly in the formulas. It is better to use a single letter E to denote it as in the other books
It is very consistent. The language of the contents is easy to follow.
In general, each model of the book is well designed. Different sections could be rearranged easily depending on the topics covered by the instructors. One thing that can be improved is in chapter 2: Descriptive Statistics. Measures of the Location (2.3) is introduced before Measures of the center (2.5). However, the concept of mean (average) is used when Percentile is calculated in sec 2.3. I would suggest to move sec 2.5 before sec 2.3.
This book is well organized. The part I like most is that each chapter includes contents part, Key terms, Chapter review, homework problems and solution keys. Students can easily find what they need. It is easy to use.
It is very easy to find the right contents.
It is well written. It is easy to understand what the book is trying to present.
The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.
As an OER book, this text is a good choice with no cost. For those who heavily rely on TI-calculators, this book is even better.
This textbook is a bit different from other textbooks in its coverage of topics. Here are some observations: 1. The topic on ethics is addressed early in the textbook. (Most textbooks I have found don't pay much attention to ethics.) 2. While... read more
This textbook is a bit different from other textbooks in its coverage of topics. Here are some observations:
1. The topic on ethics is addressed early in the textbook. (Most textbooks I have found don't pay much attention to ethics.)
2. While there is mention of experiments, I could not find any mention of observational studies.
3. Percentiles are mentioned, but there is no discussion on how to find percentiles methodically.
4. There is strong presence of the use of tree diagrams and Venn diagrams in calculating probabilities.
5. There is strong emphasis on the TI-83/84 to calculate probabilities.
I did not notice any math computation errors. I did notice some typos. In Section 1.2, there is a math example about the demographics of two colleges in the Spring 2010 quarter, but then there are references to Fall 2007.
I'm reviewing the 2018 edition of the textbook. Some of the contexts seem a little outdated. (In Chapter 8, there is an example about smartphones, and the phones listed date back to the early 2010s.) With that said, I don't think the outdated contexts detract too much from the content. At least they are still within the same decade!
The textbook sufficiently defined vocabulary terms and, where appropriate, provided examples of those terms.
In Chapter 3, there is mention of the P(A and B) probability. But I think we have to be careful about this notation. If the problem involves a single selection, then P(A and B) is really just a joint probability -- one fraction, that's it. But if the problem involves two selections (with or without replacement), now we're talking about the multiplication rule. The book mentions the multiplication rule early on in 3.2, but I just couldn't find any examples of how with/without replacement is applied within the multiplication rule.
The discussion on conditional probability could have included the intuitive approach.
It seemed that the terminology used was consistent throughout the textbook. The one time where I felt that there was an inconsistency is in the construction of histograms. In some histograms, the classes overlapped (e.g. 59.95 - 61.95, 61.95 - 63.95). In other histograms, the classes did not overlap. Also, some histograms used class boundaries (Example 2.8), while other histograms did not (Example 2.9). On page 82, the authors state that there is more than one way to create a histogram. However, I feel that the authors should stick with just one way for consistency.
The textbook does a good job in breaking down each section through Examples, a Try It! feature, Collaborative Exercises, and a Statistics Lab. Some sections discuss how to use a TI-83/84 calculator to obtain answers. At the end of each chapter, there is a Key Terms list, a Chapter Review, and a list of math exercises followed by the solution key.
Overall, the topics are presented logically. There were some instances in which I felt that specific vocabulary terms were introduced a little early. For example, the term "probability" was defined in Chapter 1, but only in Chapter 3 was the term fully addressed. The concept of sampling with or without replacement was described in Section 1.2, when its relevance was really in Chapter 3. The term "median" was mentioned in Section 2.3 as part of the larger discussion of the percentiles, but then it was formally defined in Section 2.5 as an example of a measure of central tendency. I felt that the discussion on box plots in 2.4 should have been integrated with the discussion on quartiles in 2.3. The linear regression equation was mentioned before the linear correlation coefficient, which I found unusual.
One recommendation would be to place vocabulary terms in boxes. The terms were bold-faced, but the text can sometimes be so dense that vocabulary boxes would have been helpful in breaking up the text.
The page breaks in some places seem strange. On page 138, halfway through the page, there is an instruction to find the standard deviation, but the rest of the page is blank. On page 141, there is only one line of text.
The interface was sufficiently clear. I noticed that, in the online version of the textbook, the exercises that referenced tables and figures included a hyperlink to the table/figure so that the student can easily refer to it. Also, the online version allows you to highlight text and make comments, as though you were writing notes within the book.
In a couple of instances did I find a grammar or spelling error. In the 1.10 Try It!, the graph should say "per Student", not "per Students". On page 181, the word "rolls", as in "rolls of a fair die", was misspelled as "roles".
The textbook was culturally sensitive. The book made an effort to use names that imply different racial/ethnic backgrounds (e.g. Rosa, Binh). The textbook was also willing to include applications that may be deemed controversial (e.g. AIDS). I did notice that, at least in the first chapter, there seemed to be a focus on California-related contexts, though I don't recall the entire textbook being that way.
If you are accustomed to using a author like Triola, this textbook might take some getting used to. You will be hard pressed to find any mention of the counting methods (factorial, permutation, combination), and this may help explain why the binomial probability distribution formula is not mentioned. Regarding hypothesis testing, the null hypothesis is not restricted to the "equal" case, as it considers the cases "less than or equal to" and "greater than or equal to". With its focus on the TI-83/84, the textbook effectively avoids other accessible tools like Excel and even normal probability tables. If you have students who do not have access to a TI-83/84, then you will need to provide extra instruction.
This text is comprehensive for an Elementary Statistics course that is not geared toward math or engineering majors. It covers all the typical topics found in an Intro to Statistics book. The text includes an introduction and chapter... read more
This text is comprehensive for an Elementary Statistics course that is not geared toward math or engineering majors. It covers all the typical topics found in an Intro to Statistics book. The text includes an introduction and chapter objectives at the beginning of each chapter. There are examples as well as Try It problems. At the end of each chapter included are key terms, chapter review, formula review, practice and homework problems and a StatsLab exercise. Answers to odd questions are available as well. It includes a nice glossary and index that are easy to use.
The text is complete and the formulas and key terms are accurate as well as unbiased. I did not find any errors in the calculations.
The content is up to date and will not become obsolete any time soon. The examples used are classic and ageless. Because of the structure of the book, any updates would be relatively easy to incorporate.
The text is written very clearly in a manner that students can understand. The examples and try it problems allow the student to apply what they've learned to test their understanding. The end of the chapter review, key terms and formula review are also very helpful. The instructions for the problems are clearly written and easy to follow.
The text is consistent throughout in format and in usage of industry standard terms and formulas. The framework and terminology is consistent with that of other published statistics text books.
The text can easily be divided into sections that can be taught at different times during the course. In the preface of the book it even lists alternate sequencing. There are several sections that could be left out or used as stand alone.
The topics in the book are presented in a clear logical order. The text includes an introduction and chapter objectives at the beginning of each chapter. There are examples as well as try it problems. At the end of each chapter included are key terms, chapter review, formula review, practice and homework problems and a StatsLab exercise. Answers to odd questions are available as well. The different color highlighting and bolding also help to transition from topic to topic or to the next chapter. The organization also allows for skipping sections or teaching out of order.
The interface was easy to use and had no navigation issues. The images and charts were clear and easy to understand. The highlighting and bolding made it easy to know when a new section began and easy to find what you were searching for. I didn't encounter any distortion of images or charts.
I did not find any grammatical errors.
The text appeared to be neutral regarding culture. There were no offensive or insensitive references. Examples were inclusive and diverse.
I liked the StatsLab and Try It sections. I also liked the collaborative exercises and Bringing it Together Homework. This text offers much opportunity to apply what is learned which is really important in statistics.
This book is quite comprehensive for an introductory course. Many topics that are not typically covered in a survey course are included (e.g., the geometric, hypergeometric, and exponential distributions are included in addition to the ubiquitous... read more
This book is quite comprehensive for an introductory course. Many topics that are not typically covered in a survey course are included (e.g., the geometric, hypergeometric, and exponential distributions are included in addition to the ubiquitous binomial, poisson, and normal distributions). Furthermore, there is an extensive collection of supplemental resources for both the student (e.g., calculator guide, formula sheets, descriptions of mathematical phrases and symbols) as well as the instructor (e.g., data sets, practice exams, projects).
The content of this text is adequately accurate and unbiased.
The fundamental concepts covered in this text are classic and likely to withstand the test of time. What distinguishes statistics textbooks from various decades is not the tests, distributions, or even necessarily terminology, but rather the technology and the datasets. This text illustrates data analysis with the current technological standard of the TI calculator series, which has all expectation of remaining current for some time. A majority of the provided data for examples is based on demographic/social/educational data (e.g. heights, pizza delivery times, test scores) that are unlikely to become problematically dated so as to obfuscate the underlying statistical process. When specific dates and data are provided, they seem to be largely representative of the most recent decade and updates would be straightforward to implement if desired.
The prose of the text is lucid and accessible. Key terms and formulas are offset in bold text and subsequently defined/listed (in end-of-chapter resources) in that familiar presentation that students have come to expect. The one disadvantage is that the explanations are quite succinct, but border on terse sometimes in a manner that might leave weaker students wanting more detailed descriptions in layman's terms to accompany the math jargon. On the other hand, what the text lacks in depth of prose, it makes up for in breadth of example problems which allows the author to "show" the reader how the concepts works rather than "tell" him so.
There were no issues with consistency.
Like most statistics textbooks, the topics are presented in such a manner that individual sections or chapters can be omitted freely at the instructor's discretion. There are occasional references to preceding material (with hyperlinks to another section of the text) which might direct the student to a section the instructor did not cover, but these are infrequent enough as not to be problematic. One nice feature of this text is that the practice problems and exams are subdivided by section/chapter for easy problem identification which facilitates test construction when sections/chapters have been omitted - this is in contrast to those textbook publishers who simply publish chapter reviews with a jumble of problems the instructor has to sift through when not covering all topics.
This textbook is arranged in the typical ordering/grouping of topics as most introductory texts. Most instructors will find no need to reorder, but this can be easily accomplished if desired.
The interface of this textbook is reasonably user-friendly. Navigation within the textbook sections and supplemental resources is quite straightforward. The only issue I see here is that the there are no physical copies of statistical tables provided; rather, the reader is directed to "links to government site tables used in statistics" - which is a link to a SUNY Polytechnic Institute website with an online textbook (Engineering Statistics Handbook). The individual 'tables' present at first glance like they might be online distribution calculators, but they are not, and the table values are listed after the content in a form that is not readily conducive to printing. Arguably, a student could learn to find appropriate values within this page, but scrolling would make this needlessly annoying and the instructor could not provide exam copies of these tables from this site and would need to look elsewhere. My suggestion is that the book could be improved by directing the students to links to online distributional calculators (for use on HW and in-class) and by providing printer-ready pages (for exams) in the appendices so that both formats were available.
No obvious issues with grammatical errors.
No reason that any reasonable person would find legitimate claim that this book is culturally insensitive. Statistics is a subject that is universally relevant and the problem sets, descriptions, and examples show no intentional cultural bias or insensitivity.
The text is comprehensive for an Introduction to Statistics course. The topics include what is typically taught in a freshman level Probability and Statistics course. I compared the topics with those taught from our current textbook and there is... read more
The text is comprehensive for an Introduction to Statistics course. The topics include what is typically taught in a freshman level Probability and Statistics course. I compared the topics with those taught from our current textbook and there is no difference in coverage.
The book is accurate and complete in examples and information. No errors or bias noted. A good attribute of online textbooks is that if an error is noticed, it can be fixed quickly.
The text presents the topics in a way that will not become obsolete. Because no statistical software is included in the textbook, the instructor always has the option to introduce the software preferred at the time. Various calculators are mentioned, again because there isn't only one, the textbook will withstand time.
Definitions and summaries are included in each chapter. The text is written in a clear manner and is easy to understand.
The book follows the same basic structure for all chapters, making it consistent and easy to follow within each chapter.
The chapters could easily be reorganized while still making sense. This allows the instructor some flexibility in covering the material.
The arrangement of topics is presented in a logical manner. The topics are organized for an easy flow from chapter to chapter. Within each chapter, there is the same structure and arrangement. Again, this helps with the transition from chapter to chapter.
Overall, the interface is adequate. Slight distortions of images/tables are not significant nor confusing when reading through the chapters.
I did not see any grammatical errors.
Examples are culturally inclusive. I noted no offensive or insensitive wording or examples.
Being an OER textbook, it is a much better deal for the students than the traditionally published text that is often used. This text covers the same topics and links to an online homework platform if that is desired. It appears to be comprehensive as a textbook for a non-calculus based statistics course.
This book does contain a table of contents and the main components necessary to cover the average course in statistics. It provides an effective index. read more
This book does contain a table of contents and the main components necessary to cover the average course in statistics. It provides an effective index.
The content is accurate. Formulas and definitions are accurate . There isn't any obvious numerical error
The book is very relevant. the context is up to date. The text is written and arranged in such a way that necessary updates will be relatively easy and straight forward to implement. An instructor can supplement this with hands-on activities. Many of the examples are universal in nature and will still remain relevant for some time to come.
The text is clear and provides adequate context for any technical terminology used. It is clearly defined in terms of the notation and symbol used.
The text is consistent in terms of terminology and framework. The layout of each chapter is consistent . The reader quickly can become familiar with how each chapter is presented and knows what to expect.
It is nicely laid out and can be no problem modularize it depending on an instructor's preference. . The text is readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course. On a larger scale, the chapters are organized logically and in a manner consistent with other similar texts.
The topics in the text are presented in a logical , clear fashion. The statistical concepts are presented inn a clear and logical order and the flow is logical too.
The interface is base on PDF format which is convenient for students and allows them to download the text to their laptops, tablets, ...etc
The text contains no grammatical errors.
The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way . It should make use of examples that are inclusive of different races , ethnicity of different background.
Overall, the text does the job for which is written for and covering most of thee necessary topics needed for introductory statistics course.
I felt the textbook was as good as an publishers text in this introductory field. read more
I felt the textbook was as good as an publishers text in this introductory field.
I did not see any glaring errors...and for the most part I felt is used common language an introductory text would use...
Accept when the authors were introducing "Confidence Intervals".
They used uncommon language such as:
EBM (this is not common and they should use a more common item such as "E" or "ME")
error bound (this is not common and they should uses "margin of error" as the vast majority of intro texts do)
P′ =X/n (they bounce back and forth on a "cap" X or not x...it should be non cap).
This would make it much easier for the majority of students who will be migrating on to the next course in this area of study.
This area of study has changed little in recent times...and the text displays a "standard" delivery of the content.
I would have love to see them include multiple technologies (not just the TI calculator). I use Excel as it is the gold standard for desk-stations around the globe (although I understand many classrooms are not equipped with computing so the TI is the standard technology for "Ed").
The text is written well and has an average communication level when delivering this material.
The authors have done well to keep a consistent tone - difficulty when more than 1 author is involved.
The text does a good job of following the market and breaking the topics into chapters that can be taken or re-arranged to suit most introductory courses.
The organization is typical of this level of course - there is disagreement as to where "correlation/regression" should be placed (but the majority of texts at this level place it in the end - I would split this into "descriptive" and "inferential").
The "descriptive" could be included in Ch2 as a section.
The interface is fine - it is a "free" text so one would not expect the top shelf pictures and images.
Again...the only issues I saw here (minor) were the "cap" X or not when discussing sample proportion.
The text seemed culturally neutral...
I want to thank the authors for their work...I am actually using it in my University courses with MyOpen Math...
And I am currently reworking the standard to fit my thoughts above and using data local to my community.
The very basic topics are included and a surprisingly large number of specific probability distributions. However, inferential topics are lacking. Sampling distributions are glossed over in a very unsatisfactory manner and their connection to... read more
The very basic topics are included and a surprisingly large number of specific probability distributions. However, inferential topics are lacking. Sampling distributions are glossed over in a very unsatisfactory manner and their connection to inferential techniques is not made clear enough. Additionally, the coverage of confidence intervals is inadequate; only three intervals are discussed. In contrast, hypothesis tests are adequately covered.
I found no factual errors.
The content is standard and updates would be infrequent, if necessary at all. However, many of the examples are disappointingly banal. It is understandable that the authors would not want to include examples or references that might need frequent updating. But there are so many options for examples that are more interesting and appealing to college students.
The prose and examples are very accessible but maybe too much so. The level of exposition is very low, leaving out many details that could explain choices made later. Such information would not necessarily be lost on an introductory statistics student; rather, I think it would make for a richer understanding of the mechanics of inferential statistics, which is the most useful part of the text.
Vocabulary is repeatedly introduced but in different contexts; this could be confusing or helpful, depending on the person reading.
Sections are short and easily divisible for reading assignments.
The organization of the material is the biggest weakness of this text. A multitude of topics are introduced quickly within the same chapter or section, one right after the other, with little connection between them. Terminology is often reintroduced. For example, the median of a data set is described in the context of quartiles and the interquartile range, then later reintroduced in the section about measures of center. The interquartile range is not addressed in the section about measures of spread. Another example is the inclusion of Type I and Type II errors before finishing the mechanics of a hypothesis test. No adequate discussion of the probabilities of these errors can take place until much later in the text. Unfortunately, there are many more examples of the seemingly haphazard organization of the material.
Overall the interface is adequate. There are some tables that are split between pages (for example, moderately sized frequency tables) and some notation that is spaced oddly (for example, sample mean and standard deviation as well as z-scores for confidence intervals). Every so often, there is a page that is mostly blank for no clear reason.
I found no grammatical errors.
The examples generally avoid topics that could be considered even close to topical or controversial. The one caveat I have noticed, not limited to this text, is the repeated mention of gender binaries (boys and girls, men and women). Recognizing and including a category for people who identify as non-binary would be a step towards increased inclusivity.
The text presents a comprehensive course in basic statistics. There is an index as well as a glossary and reference list after each chapter. Chapter sections are congruent across chapters, including collaborative exercises for group work,... read more
The text presents a comprehensive course in basic statistics. There is an index as well as a glossary and reference list after each chapter. Chapter sections are congruent across chapters, including collaborative exercises for group work, guiding questions a Statistics Lab, Try It guided practice, extensive practice problems based on real-world experiences, and homework. Problem solutions are also provided. Ancillary materials include an instructor manual, Get Start guide, and PowerPoint. Instruction includes key terms, statistical formulas, graphing, and calculator information. There is, however, no discussion of validity or reliability, nor is there any discussion of post hoc testing in the ANOVA chapter.
The text is predominantly error free and unbiased. There is a typo on page 456, listing both Goset and Gossett as the statistician’s name. It makes a clear distinction between data and datum, which is commendable considering the current tendency to use data as a singular term. The null and alternate hypothesis formats are a bit unusual, stating the null as less than and the alternate as more than, rather than the usual no difference or relationship for the null and increase/decrease or there is a difference or relationship leading to a two- or one-tailed discussion.
The text is a traditional presentation of statistics that strongly supports its longevity. The text is appropriate for advanced high school and bachelor levels as well as a graduate-level survey or resource for an advanced statistics course. Information is also presented on IRB and ethics, not always found in statistics instruction. Each chapter is thorough, including TI programming calculator instructions, but there is only a vague reference to statistical software with no direct mention of Excel or other statistical software such as SPSS. The instructor can easily add computer software to the Collaborative Exercises.
The instructional narrative is presented in a conversational style that helps those students intimidated by statistics. The text thorough fulfills its purpose to help students design, implement, and analyze basic statistical concepts. Key terms are presented in bold font. Each chapter states specific objectives and learner outcomes. Most importantly, the text explains the why as well as the how, much more than the basic, Do This. Further, the text includes traditional formula notation, a feature often omitted in many statistics texts.
The text is most consistent in the presentation of terminology. There are some variations, however, such as the introduction of the Independent variable but no reference to the dependent variable. Rather, the terms explanatory and response variables are used. There is no mention of control, moderator, or intervening variables and uses the term, lurking variable rather than the traditional term, extraneous variable. Skewness is presented as right or left skew with no mention of positive or negative skew except in a table. Further, the term, symmetric, is used early in the text then the term, normal, is used later in the text to describe distributions. Different terms are used in place of measures of dispersion and central tendency.
The congruency of chapter components allows instructors and students to easily organize the learning environment. Using the same sections in all chapters assures the instructor of a thorough coverage of any topic presented. Each chapter includes objectives and learning outcomes to assist the instructor in identifying specific readings for a course or for ordering the chapters in a specific sequence.
There is a logical sequence of chapters, but some instructors may find the Chi Square instruction out of place. The chapter can easily be positioned between descriptive and inferential chapters without any loss in accuracy and clarity. Chapters can be rearranged or omitted, depending on the course’s purpose. Each chapter builds in complexity of narrative, formulas, problems, etc.
The congruent structure of each chapter helps students anticipate the scope of instruction, practice, and other supports provided for each topic. This ease of navigation also serves to decrease the anxiety level of statistics-phobic students. This text would be an excellent main text or ancillary text for online course delivery formats.
The text does refer to GPA’s rather than the preferred GPAs. The balance of information is error free.
The instruction is inclusive, sensitive, and inoffensive. The example scenarios are based on diverse, authentic studies. Culturally-diverse populations, both genders, etc. are used in examples and problems throughout all chapters.
Introductory Statistics is worthy of instructor review for a variety of secondary and post-secondary course work. I am using the text for my basic statistics survey course.
This Introductory Statistics book covers all the introductory areas/concepts very thoroughly with the exception of Counting methods such as permutations and combinations. These counting methods are not covered at all in the book and thus I must... read more
This Introductory Statistics book covers all the introductory areas/concepts very thoroughly with the exception of Counting methods such as permutations and combinations. These counting methods are not covered at all in the book and thus I must supplement this information into my course.
Per my review and use, I have found no errors.
This book could be used for many ears without any updates. The examples are current and would continue to remain current for several more years
Overall the text/concepts are written in a very clear manner. The only concern I have is that several times when calculations are used, the formulas are not always given in the text but the reader must find the formulas at the end of the chapter.
Text is consistent.
Each section of each chapter is well organized. While many sections of this (and other) intro stats books need to be followed in a order, there are several sections that could stand alone or be left out if time is short.
The topics are presented in a typical, logical order for an introductory statistics course.
The online interactive version of the book allows the students to work example problems and then click on the link to see if their work is correct. But the biggest hang-up that I have with this book is that the homework or review problems are numbered in the truly online interactive version; the homework or review problems are only numbered in the PDF or book version. This is a bit frustrating for the student to have to go back and forth between the two versions and for the instructor to assign work.
Grammar is fine.
This book has many examples and assignments that cover many different and diverse topics without being offensive or heavy in one area.
Introductory Statistics is comprehensive and includes all the topics needed for an introductory course in statistics. In the preface, you are given options on how to strategical present the topics during the semester rather than follow chapter by... read more
Introductory Statistics is comprehensive and includes all the topics needed for an introductory course in statistics. In the preface, you are given options on how to strategical present the topics during the semester rather than follow chapter by chapter. The section on using the calculator is useful for the students, however, adding the probability tables instead of a link would be beneficial.
I found no inconsistencies, errors or bias throughout the textbook’s content.
The examples and data sets would appeal to a variety of students regardless of their major. It shows that statistical analysis is present in all areas of study. There were sections within chapters that focused too much on the use of the calculator.
The text was very clear. Students can read each section and get a good understanding of the topic due to the use of highlighted definitions and breakdown of problems. There are various examples for students to work out and get a better understanding. Chapter reviews and formulas help to sum out all the topics’ main ideas and terms before the exercises.
I found all the chapters to be consistent in both layout and breakdown.
The chapters are separated into smaller topics which makes it easy to use all parts of the chapter if necessary. Also, the preface also gives you an option to use the chapters out of order to design your class differently than just chapter 1 then 2.etc., thus the textbook is structured to use the chapters you only need without losing the concepts.
The topics are presented in an order consistent with any high priced introductory statistics textbook I have used.
I found the interface to be very consistent and there were no images distorted.
In the various chapters I reviewed. I found no grammar errors.
I found the textbook to be neutral with no insensitive or offensive materials. It appears very inclusive.
I found the textbook very useful and better than some high priced textbooks and plan on using it in upcoming semesters.
Introductory Statistics includes all the topics critical to a first course in college statistics designed for a wide range of majors and programs. It is complete in its coverage of the entire statistical process from sampling to application of... read more
Introductory Statistics includes all the topics critical to a first course in college statistics designed for a wide range of majors and programs. It is complete in its coverage of the entire statistical process from sampling to application of inferential statistics to generalizing and/or making a decision about a population of interest. For a semester long course, which does not allow covering all the of chapters, the comprehensiveness allows for picking and choosing the most relevant topics for the course. One aspect that is less complete is the sole focus on using the TI-83, 83+, 84, 84+ Calculator for computations. While complete in itself, applications of spreadsheets and probability tables are missing.
I have not found anything that is inaccurate, in error or biased.
The examples and exercises are such that they will not be out of date. There many references to specific colleges and locations that may seem irrelevant to students, but the examples themselves are lasting. The text includes examples and exercises that could be considered “triggers” and instructors should be aware of these, but they are not so intense to be considered inappropriate. Overall the text includes wide ranging subjects, issues, fields, and interests to be meaningful to a wide cross section of students.
The textbook introduces new terminology, notation and formulas and concepts in each chapter while limiting excessive wordiness. This is enhanced by the key terms, chapter review and formula reviews provided at the end of each chapter. In some cases, extra notation is avoided without loss of conceptual completeness, such as using OR and AND for probability statements rather than set notation for union and intersection. The verbal descriptions are concise and dense with many examples to fill out a reader’s understanding of an idea or concept.
The text is consistent in layout and approach to topics. Terminology is used in a consistent way throughout the chapters.
Each chapter has a clear introduction with distinct objectives. And while sections and chapters are ordered in a progressive manner, the text is self-contained enough so that sections and chapters can be presented in an order (or skipped) to serve overall course objectives. Exercises within chapters are also broken out by section, facilitating the assigning of only those exercises that practice desired topics.
The text is organized such that concepts build on each other in a logical fashion. Within chapters, sections move back and forth between explanation and examples, also in a logical manner, addressing key points as appropriate to the flow of the text.
The interface is sufficient, navigating around the text with table of contents is convenient. At times page breaks chop up examples. The font choice and the layout of the online version makes for a more readable text than the PDF version and a better overall appearance.
I have not found any significant grammatical errors in the text book.
For use in the United States the text is relevant. While exercises and examples reference many different cultures (countries) most that have a culture specific reference are about US specific topics such as baseball, the US senate, presidential elections, income, etc. This enhances relevance for American students.
I have used many statistics textbooks for an introductory stats class and find this textbook to be just as good as ones with high price tags, so being free to students makes it a good choice. One of the best feature is the Stats Lab activities/assignments included for each chapter. As is, or adapted, they make for in depth exploration into the given topic.
This text covers almost all of the concepts required in an introductory or sophomore level statistics course. However, there is one topic omission that I feel should be included in a future edition is combinatorics. The inclusion of general... read more
This text covers almost all of the concepts required in an introductory or sophomore level statistics course.
However, there is one topic omission that I feel should be included in a future edition is combinatorics. The inclusion of general counting techniques would be beneficial to students and could easily be included in the chapter on probability. In the current edition of the text, it seems as though the authors either assume that students already know the combination formula used in the section on binomial distributions or will be relying so heavily on their calculators that explaining the formula is not necessary.
Beyond the authors' errata which is available separately on textbook's webpage, I have found the textbook to be error-free and accurate.
For the most part, I find that the subject matter in the examples and exercises to be up-to-date. There are a couple of current "hot button" social/political topics and references to current technology that are incorporated into the exercises that I feel will be less relevant in a few years. However, they are few in number. Much of the subject matter used in the examples and exercises is timeless and would not need to be revised in order to make the text feel current.
The concepts throughout the text are explained appropriately and clearly. There is a nice balance between the clarity of the theory and the readability of the text. The prose format of definitions and theorems makes theoretical concepts more accessible to non-math major students without watering down the material.
The text is consistent in its terminology and framework.
There are a few sections in chapters one and two that didn't need to stand alone and could have been combined with other sections due to the relationship of the topics in them. These were sections on data displays. And there was no individual section that would have been improved by separating into two sections. Overall, having the topics separated into smaller sections promotes synthesis of the material.
In chapter three, it seems more appropriate to cover section five (Venn diagrams and factor trees) along with counting techniques before starting probability theory. I also believe that the topics in chapter twelve (linear regression and correlation) would be better suited to introduced before the chapters on probability distributions. Otherwise the remaining chapters of the text are appropriately and logically organized based on the material covered in an introduction to statistics course.
The text is free of any issues. There are no navigation problems nor any display issues.
There are no grammatical errors.
I found the text to be culturally respectful and inclusive with regard to gender, ethic background, etc.
This text is a good introduction to statistical methods. It presents formulas and techniques in a clear way with detailed examples.
The theoretical depth of the material is at a level allowing students with a basic knowledge of algebra to understand the concepts while motivating deeper investigation for more mathematically advanced students.
The text covers all of the major concepts students would be expected to learn in an introductory statistics course including sampling and data, descriptive statistics, and inferential statistics. While the text might be overly comprehensive for a... read more
The text covers all of the major concepts students would be expected to learn in an introductory statistics course including sampling and data, descriptive statistics, and inferential statistics. While the text might be overly comprehensive for a one semester statistics course, instructors could easily pick and choose which chapters and concepts to include or extend the course over two semesters. Each chapter includes a list of key terms alongside definitions. The text also includes an index as well as multiple appendices such as data sets and review exercises, which would be beneficial for students. The end-of-chapter reviews are also quite comprehensive and include a review of each section, reviews of formulas, and practice questions.
The book appears to be accurate, error-free, and unbiased. It includes numerous examples and sample problems throughout the chapters, whose answers appear to be correct. The text also discusses common biases in statistical research, such as assumptions, sampling methods, and research ethics.
The examples and data sets presented in the book help to make statistics relevant for students. Many of the examples reference university students and all are situated within real-world problems or issues. Most of the data sets are from several years ago (such as carbon dioxide emissions from 2009 and earlier), and it would be helpful if these were updated. However, the variety of examples and data sets provided make this book relevant and applicable to a variety of disciplines.
This text emphasizes examples and sample problems over extensive narratives. The introductory text in each chapter is helpful and clear, but the descriptive text in the various sections of the chapter are often quite brief. It would be helpful if the chapter's narrative flowed a bit more cohesively from one topic to the next. That said, the emphasis on practice questions and examples would pair well with an instructor who could clearly present the concepts in class and then assign the textbook reading following the class meeting.
The book's consistency is excellent and it follows a similar structure across all of the chapters. Each chapter includes numerous examples, and students would particularly find the examples with solutions followed by the "Try It" exercises without a solution immediately listed a helpful way to learn the material, practice it with guidance, and then try it on their own.
This text includes a variety of core concepts in statistics that could easily be rearranged depending on instructor preference. As with any mathematical course, some concepts need to be introduced before others (the normal distribution, for example, is fairly critical in understanding hypothesis testing), but later concepts especially could be reorganized. In addition, less essential core concepts could be eliminated or reduced depending on the course objectives with little disruption to the reader.
The text presents topics in a clear and organized way. Each chapter is similarly structured and presents core statistical concepts in a logical way, first introducing the concept, then providing examples, and finally offering sample problems for students to complete on their own in order to test their understanding.
The text is well-presented with clear, simple diagrams and a consistent visual framework. The tables and figures enhance the concepts discussed and would aid in the reader's understanding.
The text contains no grammatical errors and is well-written.
The text contains a variety of culturally relevant examples, including many data sets and sample problems related to college students. At times, the examples could be adjusted so they are less culturally insensitive. A sample problem in Chapter 10, for example, refers to iPhones being more popular with "whites" than with "African Americans," though some people prefer the label "black," and this example overlooks or oversimplifies broader issues with income distribution. (iPhone purchases are not simply based on cultural preferences, though it's likely a contributing factor.) Perhaps instead of using different races in the example, the text could be revised to compare age groups. Otherwise, the examples include a variety of women and men as well as varying ethnicities and the issues discussed would be relevant for students of a variety of ages and life experiences.
Overall, the text is highly comprehensive, covering a wide array of statistical concepts and including numerous examples and sample problems.
This book is sufficiently comprehensive for a non-majors introductory statistics course. In terms of content, it offers an adequate number of topics and adequate explanations. However, the book offers very little regarding sampling distributions... read more
This book is sufficiently comprehensive for a non-majors introductory statistics course. In terms of content, it offers an adequate number of topics and adequate explanations. However, the book offers very little regarding sampling distributions and the relationship to the normal distribution. There are enough example and homework problems to support the content. The index and glossary were also sufficiently comprehensive.
I did not find any obvious errors in the calculations or formulas.
I found the text contained an over reliance on the use of the graphing calculator. The textbook more or less requires the use of a graphing calculator. I think including a more substantial use of statistical software would have made the text more relevant. Students will find the use of data sets in the textbook and the citation of where to obtain them both relevant and helpful.
The material is presented clearly. Some of the sections are a little bit “wordy” but this does not take away from the overall clarity.
In the sections I reviewed, the notation and terminology was consistent.
The organization and chunking of material in each section is appropriate for an introductory statistics student.
The text is well organized. Each section I reviewed was presented in the same way. It begins with the objectives at the beginning of each chapter, proceeds through vocabulary and examples, and then ends with practice problems. It is organized similar to other statistics textbooks.
The interface of the online version of the textbook works very well. Working through the contents tab you can access any section of the text quickly. The show solution/hide solution option makes it easy for students to attempt examples without looking at the solution. I did have problems when I attempted to visit one of the links to an external website.
The text is “wordy”. I noticed the authors referenced certain ideas imprecisely. When referencing the outcomes of an experiment they failed to use the idea of a sample point and often used experiment interchangeably with event or in place of event when event was closer to the point. These mistakes did not take much away from the text and perhaps I am being a little too critical considering it is written for an introductory student.
The text did not seem to be particularly culturally relevant. I did not find any evidence of it being culturally offensive.
The text covers all of the topics that are included in the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum for an introductory statistics course. Calculator instructions for the TI- graphing calculator family are included in each section. The confidence interval... read more
The text covers all of the topics that are included in the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum for an introductory statistics course. Calculator instructions for the TI- graphing calculator family are included in each section.
The confidence interval chapter [Chapter 8] does not include finding confidence intervals based on standard deviations and variances. The hypothesis testing chapter [Chapter 9] also does not mention testing for standard deviations or variances. This chapter does spend a significant amount of time giving a good background on the concept of hypothesis testing which will improve student understanding for the rest of the topics.
Type I and Type II errors are given good coverage with the introductory hypothesis testing.
Table F1 includes an overview of typical English phrases that are often misinterpreted when trying to devise hypothesis statements. Phrases such as, “x is no more than 4”, is illustrated to be equivalent to x = 4.
Table F2 includes a chart showing the symbols used throughout a statistics course and gives its meaning and the associated topic for its use.
The content is generally accurate. There are some minor typos which might lead to confusion for students. A few noted below:
Example 5.8
P(x < 5) = 1 – e(-0.25)(5) = 0.7135 should read
P(x < 5) = 1 – e^(-0.25)(5) = 0.7135
In the paragraph following Figure 12.12, “the last two items at the bottom are r2 = 0.43969” should read “the last two items at the bottom are r^2 = 0.43969”
Example 12.8
Figure 12-15 r = - 0.624-0.532, therefore r is significant, should read
Figure 12-15 r = - 0.624 < - 0.532, therefore r is significant.
Statistics books that utilize actual studies are meaningful and demonstrate relevance to students. This book does make use of studies and indicates where the information originates.
There are some problems that are included in Chapter 9 that are contributed by students of the author and are poetic in nature. The relevance of these problems can be assessed by individual instructors.
Necessary updates should be relatively easy to implement.
Overall, the text does well in explanations of the technical procedures. Terminology is defined within context of the topic being addressed and is also included in a glossary at the end of the book. The writing is at an appropriate level for this course.
There did not appear to be any issues with consistency in terminology or framework.
The organization of this book allows for smaller reading sections to be easily assigned. Realignment of subunits should not provide disruption to the reader.
The topics are arranged in an order that follows natural progression in a statistics course. They are addressed logically and given adequate coverage.
images/charts, and any other display features that may distract or confuse the reader.
The mean of a sample, x ¯, in most of the text is written as x, with a bar written a substantial distance above it as demonstrated by the snip from the text at right. [unable to paste the snip to this document] In other places, it is written as x ¯. This makes for inconsistent spacing in the paragraph structure.
Listing the probability of A and B as P(AANDB) is not very readable. [3.1 Terminology]
I did not notice any grammatical errors, although better use of punctuation within sentences could improve readability. Example: “you do not think Jeffrey swims the 25-yard freestyle in 16.43 seconds but faster with the new goggles.” Possible revision: “you do not think Jeffrey swims the 25-yard freestyle in 16.43 seconds, but faster with the new goggles.” [Example 9.14]
This text refers to many different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. The examples are respectful of differences in our society.
This textbook covers all of the required topics for transfer in the MNSCU [Minnesota State College and University] system. It would work best for a lecture course, where it could be used primarily as a resource.
An online student might have difficulty with the readability of the text in the absence of instructor guidance. The margins are small to maximize the information that can be contained on each page. The amount of information contained in a small space might prove intimidating for some students, especially those that are not comfortable with math as a subject matter.
I would consider this text for adoption, but not without exploring other options that are available.
This textbook covers all of the usual topics you would expect to cover in an introductory statistics course for non-math majors. There is a glossary available at the end of each chapter, which is very helpful. A comprehensive index is available in... read more
This textbook covers all of the usual topics you would expect to cover in an introductory statistics course for non-math majors. There is a glossary available at the end of each chapter, which is very helpful. A comprehensive index is available in this textbook at the end of the book, as you would expect. In addition, it's nice that a student may use the search option when using the pdf version of the textbook to search for specific terms.
I've went through most of the textbook, but didn't thoroughly check the Try It or homework exercises. In the content and examples, I have found several errors, most of which are minor. I will be submitting those errors to add to the errata.
The content is very relevant as it includes current studies and refers to today's modern technology and current events. It shouldn't be too difficult to update it with new studies and/or new technology and more current events in future versions.
The textbook is very clear and concise, for the most part.
Overall the book is fairly consistent in terms of terminology and framework. However, there are times when examples do not reflect the content exactly. For example, the histogram given in the solution to Example 2.9 does not follow the steps for making a histogram described previously in the content.
The text is split up into subsections and smaller reading sections quite well. The blocks of text are appropriately small and manageable and most sections could be reordered without much difficulty to the reader.
The topics are given in a very logical order. I particularly like how confidence intervals are covered for both a population mean (including t-intervals) and a population proportion before hypotheses tests for these parameters are explained. But if someone wants to cover both confidence intervals and hypotheses for a particular parameter together, then this can be easily done as well.
Most images and display features are very good. However, there are some formatting issues that should be resolved. For example, each x-bar in the text has the bar located a significant distance above the x. Also, many times what should be subscripts are not displayed that way, which can be confusing for students who are trying to learn the massive amount of notation used in a statistics course.
Of the errors I've found in this text, none of them were grammatical errors.
I haven't found any issues with cultural insensitivity or offensive material in this textbook. The examples tend to include people from various ethnic backgrounds and people of different gender and races as well.
Overall, I'm very happy with this textbook.
This textbook covers all of the standard topics usually covered in ? descriptive and inferential statistics textbooks for non- mathematicians. The sequence is the same used in almost every such book. All subject areas addressed in the Table of... read more
This textbook covers all of the standard topics usually covered in ? descriptive and inferential statistics textbooks for non- mathematicians. The sequence is the same used in almost every such book. All subject areas addressed in the Table of Contents are covered thoroughly.
The computational technology in this textbook is based on a specific brand of calculator (TI-83, TI-84) only. For using the textbook a student has almost evitable to purchase a calculator of this brand. Forcing students to buy a specific brand of calculator contradicts the very idea of saving money using OER.
The technologies offered in the text especially do not make sense for online class students who use the computer technologies and don’t need to purchase and use a calculator at all. I think some instructions for using of the Excel statistical functions have to be added in the book.
The book is mathematically accurate, as far as I can see, but there are some minor errors. For example, in the formula of the confidence interval on page 417 there are the extra parenthesis in the wrong places. It gives wrong boundaries of the confidence interval. In headlines of Ch. 9 on pages 482, 484, 503, 507, 510, and 518 words “Full hypothesis test” are misleading. I suggest that it should be “Null hypothesis test”. The definition of mutually exclusive events on page 172 is correct but it makes sense to clarify it for the case when events A and B are exhaustive events of a phenomenon.
The introductory statistics doesn’t change quickly. In general, the content is as up-to-date as any introductory probability textbook can reasonably be. Main change is in technology used for computation. The calculator references will be out of date rather quickly. For non- mathematician students a statistics course is a prerequisite and computing in this course should be supplemented by at least some simple computer technologies, Excel for example, to connect this course with using the statistics in the students’ next disciplines
The clarity in the book is very good. The language in the book is simple and clear. The instructions in the book are detailed and easy to follow.
The text is consistent in its terminology and framework. Despite a difference of topics in statistics and multiple authors of the textbook, notation, vocabulary, organization, structure and flow don’t vary widely in the chapters of the book.
Chapters of the text are rather autonomous and each contains the explanation of key terms, notation, and some information from the previous chapters. I don't see any problems to divide the textbook into the weekly modules both in descriptive and inferential statistics.
The organization is fine. The text book presents all the topics in an appropriate sequence. The structure of each chapter is done in the same fashion. This makes reading much easier. Due to the autonomy of chapters instructors can easily adjust the flow.
I like the textbook interface. It is not monotonous; headlines of the different parts of the text are highlighted, bold or have a different color. The table of contents is allows direct access to the section but not vice versa.
I’ve not found any grammatical errors in this textbook (but English is not my native language). It is well written.
There are some examples that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities and back grounds. No portion of this text appeared to me to be culturally insensitive or offensive in any way, shape, or form.
The textbook is a good book for introduction to statistics. Its Stats Lab fosters active learning in the class room. There are great number of examples, exercises in “Try it” and “Practice”. The language of the book is simple and clear. The graphing calculator is well integrated into curriculum. On the other hand sometimes the main stress is done not on conceptual understanding of statistics but on details of computational procedures for the specific brand of calculator and looks like a content of a calculator manual. The ignoring of the computer technologies is a weakness of the textbook.
The textbook available to students for free and with addition of the computational computer technologies can be recommended for a community college basic statistics courses.
A Statistics textbook mostly have a standard structure. This bookk covers major subjects of the course. Central limit theorem is given a whole chapter, which is good because of its importance. However, I would like to see these more. No... read more
A Statistics textbook mostly have a standard structure. This bookk covers major subjects of the course.
Central limit theorem is given a whole chapter, which is good because of its importance.
However, I would like to see these more.
No explanation for Normal and other table use. I understand we now mostly use computers for the table values; however, I believe, students still get benefit from the use of tables although it is an additional material to cover.
Normality test would be needed. No Goodness-of-fit test or probability plot is explained. Normality test is important for the inference statistics.
It would be good to explain mean and variance of linear combination of variables, such as E[5X+2Y]= 5E[X]+2E[Y].
It will be better to give a form of PDF (or PMF) of discrete random variables.
Confidence Interval formula of F-distrbution would be better.
This book is accurate.
Elementary Statitics theory is not changed quickly. Although the application examples can be more or less current, this book is uptodated.
This book is clear in its contents. This book is actually carefully written for better understandinig of the materials.
Yes. No problem.
This book follows standard chapter layout of Statistics books (except that F-distribution is explained and used at the last part of the book). Good concise sections with many problems helps understanding the materials.
Yes. Again, the standard structure of Statistics textbooks.
Explanantions are simple and clear.
No interface problems.
Looks good.
No problem.
(1)
The competition of Statistics textbooks in the market is very high, and there are many good books available (at high prices).
One of the important aspects of the textbooks is the presentation, such as font, page layout and color. To choose a book to review for my possible use in the near future, I selected this book because it caught my eyes among a few candidate books. For example, this book has better use of colors, colorful boxes, and arrangement of tables to better guide the reading and understanding of the materials. This book has good details of the editing and has a very competitive presentation compared with other commercial Statistics textbooks. This book is well written. This book proves “a free textbook is not necessarily worse than more expensive books.”
(2)
It is hard for a Statistics textbook to be better than others due to the large number of books available. The most successful aspect of this book to me is the exercises. They are carefully made to make students easily understand the lecture materials and get feeling of real statistical analysis. The book also has very nice in-class exercises (Stats Lab) in all chapters. While this is very good for student learning, I wonder if an instructor can find time for this when covering the materials of the course. This book has many good features – such as key word summary and chapter review at the end of a chapter.
(3)
This book provides instructor resources such as syllabus, assignments, quizzes, exams, lecture videos and others. Although these are popular with commercial textbooks, these features are certainly helpful. Especially, it provides nice assignments (or projects).
The lecture video, which is helpful, is partially based on hand writing. I would prefer the video to be completely based on PPT.
No PowerPoint lecture note is provided. This will make the preparation of lecture note time taking.
(4)
The book explains the use of TI calculators; however, use of Excel will be more helpful for the students, both for descriptive Statistics and inferential Statistics. Although one book cannot have all possible contents, explanation of Minitab or Matlab will be helpful.
(5) Editing
The numbers in tables can be centered for a better appearance.
The “bar” notation of some variables (e.g., x_bar for sample mean) is away from the variable (e.g. x), which makes some equations less neat appearance.
Solution of homework of each chapter is given in the chapter, which is nice.
This book covers all necessary content areas for an introduction to Statistics course for non-math majors. The text book provides an effective index, plenty of exercises, review questions, and practice tests. read more
This book covers all necessary content areas for an introduction to Statistics course for non-math majors. The text book provides an effective index, plenty of exercises, review questions, and practice tests.
An overwhelming majority of the content is accurate. I found only couple of errors. The formula for finding the variance using grouped data is not consistent with the definition used. Assumptions for chi-squared tests were not mentioned.
Content is up to date. It would have been better if computer software such as MINITAB or SPSS was used for the computations. This would help students learn how to interpret standard statistical outputs in practice.
The textbook is written with adequate clarity. Discussion on sampling distributions would have helped the flow of the content. Central limit theorem for a sample proportions is not included. I think the authors rely too much on the graphing calculator for simple algebraic calculations. Should have used the normal and t-tables to find probabilities.
The notation used is consistent with standard notations used in the field throughout the text. However the formula used for finding variance of grouped data is not consistent with the definition. Poor notation is used in chapter 13 in discussion of ANOVA. Students may confuse the sum of the values in each group as the standard deviation in the group since the letter s is used for the sum.
The text is divided into easily readable sections. Content is well organized and presented in a manner so that reading sections can be assigned throughout the course. Different sections could be reorganized easily without presenting too much interruption to the reader.
The material is presented with a flow consistent with a standard statistic text. Sample percentiles should have been discussed before discussing the median and quartiles. Overall content is organized and structured well.
I do not see any significant interface issues. Some of the formulas were hard to read because of distortion but it will not post any confusion for a careful reader.
I did not find any grammatical errors.
I did not see any culturally insensitive material or exercises in the text.
Overall a good text for non-math majors. Basic ideas such as experimental units, sampling distributions are not discussed. Relies too much on graphing calculators for simple algebraic calculations and finding probabilities. It is better to discuss percentiles before discussing the median and quartiles since they were defined later in the chapter. Could have used statistical software for hypothesis testing, chi-squared tests, ANOVA, and regression. Plenty of examples, exercises, review questions, and practice tests were given in the textbook. Good lab assignments.
The text covers most of the areas and ideas of an introductory statistics course, The topics are covered at an appropriate depth. I did not find any work on confidence intervals for the population variance or standard deviation, although there... read more
The text covers most of the areas and ideas of an introductory statistics course, The topics are covered at an appropriate depth. I did not find any work on confidence intervals for the population variance or standard deviation, although there was a section on hypothesis teaching for a single population variance or standard deviation. Also, I did not find any discussion on non-parametic statistics. The authors do cover geometric, hypergeometric, and Poisson distributions in detail. The probability chapter did not cover Baye's Theorem or counting. Overall, the coverage and depth are satisfactory. Also, I am able to find topics using the index and Table of Contents adequately.
I could not find any typos. I feel the text was accurate, error-free, and unbiased.
Content is up-to-date. However I did notice an example using data from 1915 to 1964. I feel the authors encourage the use of a graphing calculator and do not mention any other statistical software. I feel the text is arranged in such a way that necessary updates will be relatively easy and straight forward to implement.
I believe the text is very clear and understandable for students. The authors explain and define statistic terms and concepts thoroughly. There are also a sufficient number of examples to help explain the material. The solutions to odd-numbered practice problems and homework problems are also provided at the end of each chapter
The text is consistent in terms of terminology and framework.
The text is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections. I noted that the authors did place a hypothesis test for a single population variance or standard deviation in the Chi-Square chapter instead of the Hypothesis Testing with One Sample chapter. The text should be easily reorganized and realigned without presenting much disruption to the reader.
The organization of the text is very similar to other introductory statistics texts. The topics are presented in a logical, clear fashion.
I reviewed with a hard-copy of the text, so I cannot comment on this item. I do plan to use the videos for the text in my online course.
I did not notice any grammatical errors.
I did not think that the text was culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. Any names of people used in the examples are inclusive of a variety of ethnicities, races, and backgrounds.
I plan to use this online text for an online course in the fall of 2015. I am planning to use the online text for day school stats classes in the spring of 2016.
The most important topics are covered. There are some concepts, like stem-and-leaf plots, that may be less critical for students in the social sciences to learn. Instructors can choose whether or not to skip the superfluous concepts. read more
The most important topics are covered. There are some concepts, like stem-and-leaf plots, that may be less critical for students in the social sciences to learn. Instructors can choose whether or not to skip the superfluous concepts.
I did not notice any glaring errors. There are some awkward word choices, which I discuss under "grammar".
The content is up-to-date. There are references to studies conducted from 2009 to 2013. Several questions discuss smartphones and other modern technologies. These questions can be easily updated, but they may lose relevance within a short period of time.
This textbook is ideal for students who learn by reading. The instructions are a bit wordy, which might be confusing for some students. It would be an excellent choice for instructors who tend to deliver concise, visual lectures. Since mathematical symbols and equations are often verbalized and instructions are reading intensive, classroom time can be used to engage students in hands-on practice (e.g. showing them how to use the graphing calculator) and to break down the concepts and exercises into visual and mathematical models (e.g. writing down the equation and explaining how to interpret the notation). The instructor can spend less time explaining concepts and more time helping students to work on their quantitative and logical thinking skills.
I appreciate that the textbook attempts to introduce students to various types of probability distribution functions in Chapter 4, but students may have trouble with some of these concepts because the information is not summarized or compared. Some chapters are written better than others. For instance, Chapter 11 is much more organized and readable. Different chi-square tests are explained separately, and then succinctly compared.
Examples, questions, and chapter sections are organized consistently. The “Formula Review” sections are especially useful. Important rules of thumb are usually typed in bold. There are well-organized appendices at the end of the book. However, as a reference book, it does not fulfill my expectations. The writing style is inconsistent. Sometimes formulas are stated plainly, sometimes not. Mathematical jargon is introduced with varying degrees of precision and elaboration from chapter to chapter.
It is very easy, and perhaps ideal, to pick specific chapters of this textbook to use in combination with other materials. Since the writing is inconsistent, it is not the best choice for instructors who prefer to teach from a single textbook.
The book is organized in the same way as other statistics textbooks.
Interface issues are minimal. Occasionally, there are large spaces between items (for example, page 72). This can be a little distracting.
The definitions of terms are satisfactory for the most part. However, there are segments of the book that are worded vaguely or oddly. For instance, the word “experiment” is often used to define words in the earlier chapters, which can be awkward. At one point, the authors state the tree diagrams are “used to determine the outcomes of the experiment” (188), but “event” might have been a better word to use than “experiment”. An advantage of this emphasis on statistical experiments is that it encourages the instructor to engage students in hands-on learning exercises, which introduces students to the rigors of collecting data.
The questions are culturally relevant to most U.S. students. Data on California is used fairly often. Chapter 9 includes some cute review questions written by students (sometimes in the form poems).
This textbook covers all of the standard topics usually covered in an undergradate introductory text including hyhothresis testing and ANOVA. The sequence is the same used in almost every such textbook. The index clearing describes the toppics... read more
This textbook covers all of the standard topics usually covered in an undergradate introductory text including hyhothresis testing and ANOVA. The sequence is the same used in almost every such textbook. The index clearing describes the toppics covered. Each chapter ends with a glossary for that particular chapter.
I randomly selected one example from each of the 13 chapters and worked through these finding no errors. The book includes extensive problem sets, "Try It" problems within the text after examples to give students practice, Review sets (Appendix A, for CH 3-13), practice tests and practice final exams (Appendix B). I did not spot any errors in the answer keys, though the real only way to vet so much content is to use the text. I did not spot any particula bias.
This text is full of relavant data sets providing believeable real life examples for students. Many of the data sets are cited so that students can follow up at the original source, if they are interested. Many timely topics like wifi performance and West Nile virus are included.
The text is indeed writeen clearly, if not a little dry (as are most stats books). Key words are highlighted in bold to alert the reading to thei importance. The text is nicely chunked with examples and graphics to make it readable. The page spacing is ocassionally odd, for example there will be a title for a new sub-topic within a section and then a page break (example: p. 43 has the sub-topic title "Simple Random Sample", then the text to explain the idea is on the next page). I think they could clean this flow by simply using page breaks.
The authors do not deviate from terminology and framework that is used in any of the popular intro stats textbooks put out by mainsteam publishers. The glossaries included could be used in any undergrad stats class that I have taught.
As mentioned earlier in this review I think they do a really good job of organizing the sequence of topics and then chunking each section in a way that flows nicely so that students read about a topic, see an example and then have the opportunity to do a "Try It" example. I would be able to use it in my own stats class in the order that the chapters are given.
They have organized similar to a multiitude of undergrad stats textbooks. One feature that I think is fairly unique is that they emaphaize organization of work. Undergraduate students often have trouble keeping thier work organized in a mathematics (or stats) course. The authors include graphical organizers for doing things like hypothesis tests for example. Students are offered a checklist approach to completing tasks (literally check lists). I like this.
I did not find any real issues here other than what I mentioned earlier . . . that the flow is sometimes a bit odd with headings on one page and a misplaced page break separating the text from the heading. There is sometimes issues with the typography, usual involving symbols. For example on page 380, the bars above x-bar, the symbol for sample mean, is far away (above) the "x". This is likely to confuse students.
I did not spot and such errors. I specifically read through ALL of the end of chapter glossaries.
I did not spot any particular culturally sensitive or offensive material. I think that they could spice this text up with more examples involving issues of social justice, but that is just my personal preference in a stats text.
The text includes instruction on the use of graphing calculators to do calculations, a technology used in many undergrad programs. The Group Projects in Appedix D are interesting and well thought out. They frenquently use error finding examples, a problem that contains errors which students work through to foster critical thinking.
This book covers all the topics typically covered in an introductory level statistics course from an introduction to probability and the basics f study design through sampling distributions, confidence intervals, tests of one and two samples for ... read more
This book covers all the topics typically covered in an introductory level statistics course from an introduction to probability and the basics f study design through sampling distributions, confidence intervals, tests of one and two samples for means, proportions and variances, the typical Chi square tests including independence, goodness of fit and homogeneity, regression and ANOVA. It does not include non-parametric tests. The p-value method is the only method utilized when performing hypothesis testing. The critical value method is not utilized. One topic missing is s a discussion of determining normality of a data set. The index (and table of contents) in the pdf form of the text is especially useful as it allows the user to click on the page number in the index to scroll to the desired page.
The work is free of errors. Sample problems are drawn from a wide variety of subjects and topics.
Use of the TI 84 calculator is emphasized. Directions for performing calculations on the calculator are included in the solution of example problems. Most examples are generic in the sense that there won't be a need to update the data used. Occasionally there is some data (for example one problem uses the population of Lake Tahoe NV and another uses information from a 2006 survey) that will date the book for users. This does not in any way affect the relevance and/or appropriateness of the problem being taught, it may warrant a need to update with more current data to maintain interest of readers.
Most explanations are clear but in some cases technology is relied upon to perform calculations. For example, when performing the test for independence , it is explained how to calculate the individual terms yet to get the test statistic(the chi square) rather than showing that it is the sum of the individual terms the book states the sum is derived from use of a calculator or technology. It seems it could have been clearer to the reader had the individual terms been shown rather than just being given directions of how to do the calculation using a TI-84 calculator where it does not seem at all clear where the final value is coming from.
The book uses standard language used in statistics. The book follows the same layout from chapter to chapter. Terminology and symbols are explained. Some Examples are worked in each section (where appropriate) with a problem for students to try interspersed among the explanations. Calculator directions are included in the solution where appropriate. There is also a summary of any of the statistics commands available on the TI83/84 family of calculators. There are activities ("labs") at the end of each chapter followed by exercises for the entire chapter at the very end of each chapter (rather than the more typical problem set at the end of each section within the chapter). The answer key is provided at the end of the chapter rather than at the back of the book that does make it easier to check solutions
Each section of a chapter is easily covered in a day or two days at most. One example of where the text departs from the order of most statistics tests is that the hypthesis test for variance is delayed until after the chi square tests are introduced. If one wanted to include the topic with the other one sample tests it ould easilty be done. Diferent options for ordering are given at the begining of the text.
Each section follows the same structure. Vocabulary and an explanation of the topic to be covered in the section followed by examples. Calculator directions are included where they are needed in the solution of a problem. Activities are included at the end of each chapter followed by a summary of key terms and the key concepts/topic for each section of the chapter. A problem set for the chapter and then answers for odd exercises ended each chapter. Once one becomes familiar with the layout it does make it fairly easy for one to search for information..
The interface is wnderful. The ability to click on page numbers in both the table of contents and the index and be moved to the appropriate page in the text is nice. ALl text and imageas in the PDF format are very clear. Highlighting f key concepts and ideas draws reader attention as does bold type for key terminology
None.
Most examples are generic. The examples were often relevent (distribution of populaitons bsed on race for a city were used once; opinion poll differrentieated by sex was used in another) but the topics were not offensive.
The book had links to external sources relevent to the topic. Some video lectures were linked in an associated website. a teaching guide is also available.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Sampling and Data
- Descriptive Statistics
- Probability Topics
- Discrete Random Variables
- Continuous Random Variables
- The Normal Distribution
- The Central Limit Theorem
- Confidence Intervals
- Hypothesis Testing with One Sample
- Hypothesis Testing with Two Samples
- The Chi-Square Distribution
- Linear Regression and Correlation
- F Distribution and One-Way ANOVA
- Review Exercises (Ch 3-13)
- Practice Tests (1-4) and Final Exams
- Data Sets
- Group and Partner Projects
- Solution Sheets
- Mathematical Phrases, Symbols, and Formulas
- NOTEs for the TI-83, 83+ 84, 84+ Calculators
- Tables
- Index
Ancillary Material
About the Book
Introductory Statistics 2e provides an engaging, practical, and thorough overview of the core concepts and skills taught in most one-semester statistics courses. The text focuses on diverse applications from a variety of fields and societal contexts, including business, healthcare, sciences, sociology, political science, computing, and several others. The material supports students with conceptual narratives, detailed step-by-step examples, and a wealth of illustrations, as well as collaborative exercises, technology integration problems, and statistics labs. The text assumes some knowledge of intermediate algebra, and includes thousands of problems and exercises that offer instructors and students ample opportunity to explore and reinforce useful statistical skills.
About the Contributors
Authors
Barbara Illowsky, De Anza College
Susan Dean, De Anza College
Daniel Birmajer, Nazareth College
Bryan Blount, Kentucky Wesleyan College
Sheri Boyd, Rollins College
Matthew Einsohn, Prescott College
James Helmreich, Marist College
Lynette Kenyon, Collin County Community College
Sheldon Lee, Viterbo University
Jeff Taub, Maine Maritime Academy