Re: st: advice on using Stata in an undergraduate Intro Stats course

[daniel klein <klein.daniel.81@gmail.com>]

Doug,

I did not teach statsitics, but gave some introductory courses to
Stata for undergratuates (which of course cover (basic) statistics).
So I am just commenting on 2.

I found Ulrich Kohler (also member of statalist) and Frauke Kreuter's
book very useful. It is desinged to be used in courses and there is
some good advice on how to use it in class. The book starts off with
roughly 100 pages on the basics of the software and data managmnent.
It covers descriptive and multivariate analyses, mainly linear
regression (great discussion of the assumptions of the model and
diagnostics). Non-linear models are coverd as well, though not as
extensive. There is also a chapter on graphics and many, many more.

The latest edition (2012) includes a discussion on random variables
and statistical/causal inference that I think is a great addition to
the book. Unfortunatley I think there is not yet an english
translation for this latest editon, but Uli might comment on this.

The book does not go too deep into the mathematical/statistical
background, especially regarding formulars, but uses a lot of
demonstrations (I like the part "What does "under control" mean?")
instead.


Best
Daniel


Kohler, Ulrich, Kreuter, Frauke (2009). Data Analysis Using Stata.
College Station, Texas, Stata Press.

-- 
I will be teaching a basic "Intro Stats" course to undergrads in the
next academic year. The students are at a highly selective liberal
arts college (mostly second and third-year students). It is not math
intensive (students with better math preparation or who are math
majors take a higher-level series of statistics courses) and it is
largely for students in political science, sociology, and psychology
who take it as a requirement (maybe some economics students, too). To
put it another way, the course goes up to and includes a week or two
(at most) on multivariate regression.

Some questions for those with teaching experience:

1) Have you found--or do you believe that--it is useful to have
students learn a bit of Stata for this sort of course? (The college
has a campus license.)

2) Are there textbooks (or on-line books/websites) that use Stata for
a beginners intro to statistics (and/or probability)? I.e., not just
intro to Stata, but intro to Stata for learning stats from the
starting square? (The difference between two such books/websites could
be the order in which material is introduced, the complexity of the
problems or examples, assumptions of previous knowledge, etc.)

3) Anybody care to share syllabi for this sort of course (using Stata,
or not)? [Please respond off line by emailing me directly if you want
to send a file, of course.]

Thank you for any thoughts.
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