Probability Distributions

Prof. Madhav Kulkarni

Aim of Course:

This course cover statistical probability distributions, such as the Bernoulli distribution, uniform distribution, hypergeometric distribution, Poisson distribution, Normal distribution, exponential distribution, Gamma distribution, Weibull distribution, Student's t distribution, chi-square distribution, F-distribution. Participants will learn how to identify which distribution(s) reasonably fit given data, and to evaluate the fit.

Who Should Take This Course:

Anyone who models data or statistical processes.

For those enrolled in a Program of Advanced Statistical Studies, this is a required or elective course in the following Programs:

• Engineering Statistics - required

Course Program:

The course is structured as follows

The Instructor:

Prof. Madhav Kulkarni is Head, Mathematics and Statistics Dept, B.Y.K. College of Commerce, Nashik, India. He is co-author of Common Statistical Tests, Introduction to Statistical Ecology, and Introduction to Discrete Probability and Probability Distributions as well as a number of research papers in various peer-reviewed journals. He is also a statistical consultant for industry and to biologists.

Organization of the Course:

The course takes place over the internet, at statistics.com. During each course week, you participate at times of your own choosing - there are no set times when you must be online. Course participants will be given access to a private discussion board. In class discussions led by the instructor, you can post questions, seek clarification, and interact with your fellow students and the instructor. The course is scheduled to take place over 4 weeks, and typically requires 15 hours per week. At the beginning of each week, you receive the relevant material, in addition to answers to exercises from the previous session. During the week, you are expected to go over the course materials and work through exercises. Discussion among participants is encouraged. The instructor will provide answers and comments.

Certificates and Grades:

You may be interested only in learning the material presented, and not be concerned with grades or certificates. Or you may be enrolled in a statistics.com Program in Advanced Statistical Studies that requires demonstration of proficiency in the subject, in which case your work will be assessed for purposes of issuing a grade. Or you may require only a "Certificate of Course Completion," along with professional development credit in the form of Continuing Education Units (CEU's). As you begin the class, you will be asked to specify your category.

Credit:

This course offers continuing education units (CEU's). For those successfully completing the course (generally this means marks of 50% or better on the homework), 5.0 CEU's and a certificate will be issued by statistics.com, upon request.

Dates:

May. 28 - Jun. 25, 2010
Click here to be notified of future course offerings.

Participants gain access to the online materials on the first day of the course, and typically spend about 15 hours per week (at their convenience). You retain full access to course materials, including discussion board, for two weeks after the course closing date.

Level:

intermediate

Prerequisite:

The equivalent of Introduction to Statistics 1: Inference for a Single Variable, and Introduction to Statistics 2: Working with Bivariate Data (and, if necessary before these courses, Introduction to Statistics for Beginners or Survey of Statistics for Beginners).

For additional information about course prerequisites, click here.

Some familiarity with calculus (see statistics.com's brief Calculus Review course) is helpful for a complete facility with the various distributions.

Course Text:

Required text for this course is Introduction to Discrete Probability and Probability Distributions, First Edition by Madhav B. Kulkarni and Surendra B. Ghatpande, published 2007 by SIPE Academy, Publishers and Consultants, Nashik.

The text will be made available as a .pdf during the first lesson.

A hard copy of the text is available from SIPE Academy, Publishers and Consultants, Nalinee, Plot No 13 B, S. No. 810/A Pakhal road, A/P Gandhinagar, Nashik 422 006, Maharashtra, India for $5.00 plus shipping. Contact Prof. S. B. Ghatpande at sb_ghatpande@yahoo.com.

Software:

Any general statistical package can perform most of the operations called for in this course, which fall into two main categories: (1) generation, tabling and graphing of random variables from specified distributions, (2) calculating probabilities, assessing fit, and performing statistical tests. Also note that Excel can be used for much of the above, particularly when coupled with Resampling Stats for Excel. Finally, R functions are provided as part of the course; these can be used for most of the course work if you have some basic familiarity with R. Click here for download information for these and other software packages that offer free or nominal cost versions that may be used in statistics.com courses.

Registration:

Register Online - $499
Register Online (academic) - $399 (you must be affiliated with a college, university or high school)

Add $50 service fee if you require a prior invoice, or if you need to submit a purchase order or voucher, pay by wire transfer or EFT, or refund and reprocess a prior payment. Please use this printed registration form, for these and other special orders.

Note: Courses may fill up at any time and registrations are processed in the order in which they are received. Your registration will be confirmed for the first available course date, unless you specify otherwise.

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