Winter

2017 STATS 130 Getting Up to Speed with SPSS, Stata, SAS, and R


Course Information
Instructor: Maria Cha/ Math Sciences 8967/ maria.cha@stat.ucla.edu
Lecture: MWF 4-4:50pm / Powell 320C
TA: Tianran Zhang / tianranzhang@ucla.edu
Discussion: Th 8-8:50am (1A); 9-9:50am (1B) / Powell 320C
Office Hours: MW 3-3:50pm at Powell Group Study Room A or by appointment.


Course Requirements

You are expected to have an understanding of basic statistical knowledge such as
exploratory data analysis, regression, descriptive statistics and statistical inference.
Therefore, Stats10, 12, or 13 is required for this course. Otherwise, the course is
largely self-contained.
No textbook required. All lecture notes and resources will be posted on CCLE.


Software

We will use SPSS, SAS, Stata and R. R is free and you may download on your own computer.
SAS is not free but has a free university edition. The other software are not free but they
are all available on lab computers and university laptops. They are also available through
the college software shortcut while you are in the college library or you access via UCLA
vpn. It is your responsibility to figure out the accessibility of the software.

- R Download : http://cran.stat.ucla.edu
- R studio Download: http://www.rstudio.com
- SAS University Edition Download : http://www.sas.com/en_us/software/university-
edition.html
- SPSS 14-day trial version: https://www-
01.ibm.com/marketing/iwm/iwmdocs/tnd/data/web/en_US/trialprograms/W110742E0
6714B29.html
- Software shortcut : https://software.library.ucla.edu/Citrix/SoftwareWeb/



Assessment

Attendance (10%)
You must attend all lectures. Sign sheets will be available during the first 10 minutes of the
lecture. You may drop two of them. For every 2 absences, you will lose one point from the
full credit. (i.e. upto 2 absence : 10%, 3-4 absence : 9%, 5-6 absence : 8%, and so on.)

Midterm (15% each; 60% total)
There will be four midterms; one for each software. You must take all four midterms. If
there is a schedule conflict, you should let me know in advance for rescheduling.

Homework (4% each; 20% total)
There will be five homework assignments; two for SAS, one for the other three. You must
upload your file to CCLE. No email, make up, late homework accepted.

Final Project (10%)
By the end of the quarter, you will finish one data analysis project. You may find a project
mate to do the project collaboratively (or you could do it on your own). You will choose one
software among SAS, Stata and SPSS to analyze the data. Detail guideline will be given after
1st midterm.


** No final exam for this course.
** Final letter grade will be given by the following guideline:
90% or higher: A range,
80% or higher: B range,
70% or higher: C range,
D or F will be given, otherwise. (If necessary, final grades can be curved.)






Tentative Schedule (subject to change)

Week Software Topic Exams & Dues
1 SAS Introduction
2 SAS Data manipulation 1 HW1 (1/20)
3 SAS Data manipulation 2
HW2 (2/1)
4 SAS Statistical Analysis
Midterm1 (2/3)
5 Stata Introduction and Data manipulation
HW3 (2/15)
6 Stata Statistical Analysis
Midterm2 (2/17)
7 SPSS Introduction and Data manipulation
HW4 (3/1)
8 SPSS Statistical Analysis
Midterm3 (3/3)
9 R Review
HW5 (3/15)
10 R Advanced programming Midterm4 (3/17)
Project (3/19)




 ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND CLASS POLICY

As a student and member of the University community, you are here to get an education
and are, therefore, expected to demonstrate integrity in your academic endeavors. All
students must uphold University of California Standards of Student Conduct as
administered by the Office of the Dean of Students (http://www.deanofstudents.ucla.edu/).
Students are subject to disciplinary action for several types of misconduct or attempted
misconduct, including but not limited to dishonesty such as cheating, multiple submission,
plagiarism, or knowingly furnishing false information.