The course objective is to introduce students to the foundational statistical concepts that business and data analysts use every day. Students will begin by describing datasets with summary statistics and simple data visualizations before moving on to some of the more powerful techniques made possible by statistics: statistical inference and predictive analytics. Through probability, hypothesis testing, and linear model building, students will use limited data to draw conclusions about the underlying patterns that drive everyday phenomena, from rideshare tipping behavior to the changing temperature of the Earth.
Students will primarily use Google Sheets to apply these statistical techniques to data, though they will have exposure to Python via Google Colab notebooks throughout the course. Note: This course does not require any knowledge of programming or the Python language.