Canterbury Institute of Management (CIM)

BUSS101 Business Statistics

Tutorial Plan – Week 2

Time Activity
5 minutes Ice breaker activity – Tutor to get students to share their previous experience re:
accounting.
20 minutes Lecture recap –
The key concepts covered in the week 1 lecture were:
 Describe the two major branches of statistics – descriptive statistics and inferential
statistics
 Understand the key statistical concepts – population, sample, parameter, statistic
and census
 Provide examples of practical applications in which statistics have a major role to
play
 Understand how statistics are used by business managers
 Understand the basics of the computer spreadsheet package Microsoft excel and its
capabilities in aiding with statistical data analysis for large amounts of data.
 Describe different types of data
 Explain the various methods of collecting data
 Understand the concept of sampling
 Understand the main types of errors involved in sampling.
10 minutes Divide students into small groups (3 to 4 per group). Allow students to discuss Exercise
1.1 from Chapter 1 of the prescribed textbook within their groups.
1.1 In your own words, define and give an example of each of the following statistical
terms:
population
sample
parameter
statistic
statistical inference
10 minutes After the groups have been given 10 minutes for group discussions on Exercise 1.1,
randomly select groups to present their answers to the class. The tutor will lead
discussions around the questions.
10 minutes Students to attempt question 1.3 from Chapter 1 of the prescribed textbook.
1.3 The manager of a bank with 12 000 customers commissions a survey to gauge
customer views on internet banking, which would incur lower bank fees. In the survey,
21% of the 300 customers interviewed said they are interested in internet banking.
What is the population of interest?
What is the sample?
Is the value 21% a parameter or a statistic?
10 minutes After about 10 minutes, the tutor will lead the discussions on question 1.3 from Chapter
1.
30 minutes Students to be acquainted with MS Excel. Use the following exercise to get students to
start using MS Excel. Students at the Institute are provided with access to MS Excel
online through their CIM email accounts. Get them to login and use Excel.

Appendix 1.A. Introduction to Microsoft Excel

The purpose of this appendix is to introduce you to Microsoft Excel and to provide
enough instructions to allow you to use Excel to produce the statistical results discussed
in this course.

Opening Excel
Usually an Excel icon will be on your computer desktop. To execute Excel, just double-
click the icon. Alternatively, to run Microsoft Excel, just click Start, All Programs,
Microsoft Office 2016 and Excel 2016. A blank workbook will appear, or if a menu
appears, click on Blank workbook. *

The Excel screen depicted in Figure A1.1 will then appear. (Unless stated otherwise,
'clicking' refers to tapping the left button on your mouse once; 'double-clicking' means
quickly tapping the left button twice.) The screen that appears may be slightly different
from that illustrated, depending on your version of Excel.

The Excel Workbook and Worksheet

Excel files are called workbooks, which contain worksheets. A worksheet consists of
rows and columns. The rows are numbered, and the columns are identified by letters.

If you click the FILE tab on the top left-hand corner of the Excel screen and select New
and then Blank workbook, you will see a worksheet like that in Figure A1.1. Notice that
the cell in row 1 column A is active, which means that you can type in a number, word
or formula in cell A1. Toxk designate any cell as active, move the cursor (or the mouse
pointer), which now appears as a large plus sign) over the cell and click. Alternatively,
you can use any of the four Up, Down, Left or Right arrow keys to move to a different
cell. (The keys appear on your keyboard as arrows pointing up, down, left and right
respectively.)

At the bottom left-hand corner of the screen you will see the word Ready. As you begin
to type something into the active cell, the word Ready changes to Enter. Above this
word you will find the tab Sheet1, the worksheet that comprises this workbook. You
can click the '+' icon next to this tab to add more worksheets to the workbook. To
change worksheet, use your cursor and click the tab for the sheet you wish to move to.
To change the name of the worksheet, for example 'Sheet2' to 'mydata', double-click on
'Sheet2' and type 'mydata', then hit the Enter key.

Inputting Data
To input data, open a new workbook by clicking the FILE tab and then selecting New
and then Blank workbook. Data are usually stored in columns. Activate the cell in the
first row of the column in which you plan to type the data. If you wish, you may type
the name of the variable. For example, if you plan to type your assignment marks in
column A you may type 'Assignment marks' into cell A1. Hit the Enter key and cell A2
becomes active. Begin typing the marks. Follow each entry by Enter to move to the next
row. Use the arrow keys or mouse to move to a new column if you wish to enter another
set of numbers.

Importing Data Files

Data files accompany many of the examples, exercises and cases in this book. These
data files can be downloaded from the Additional Resources folder of this MindTap.

The file names reflect the chapter number and the example, exercise or case number.
For example, the data set accompanying Example 1.4 contains 200 electricity bills.
These data are stored in a file called XM04-01 , which is stored in a directory (or
folder) called CH04, which refers to the chapter number. (The XM refers to files used
for eXaMples, XR is used for eXeRcises, and C refers to Cases.) To open this file in
 Excel 2016, click the FILE tab and then select Open. You can then browse your
computer to select the required file.

Performing Statistical Procedures

There are several ways to conduct a statistical analysis in Excel. These include Data
Analysis, XLSTAT and the Insert function
Fx (fx is displayed on the formula bar). There are also some workbooks, available to
download from the Additional Resources folder of this MindTap, that we have created
that will allow you to perform some of the statistical estimations and tests discussed in
this book.

Data Analysis/Analysis ToolPak

The Analysis ToolPak is a group of statistical functions that comes with Excel. The
Analysis ToolPak can be accessed through the Menu bar. Click the DATA tab on the
menu bar and then select Data Analysis from the Analysis submenu. If the Analysis
submenu does not appear, click on the FILE tab (on the top left-hand corner of the
Excel screen), select Options and, on the window that appears, click on the Add-Ins tab.
At the bottom of the window, select Excel Add-ins in the drop-down menu that appears
next to Manage, and then click Go. Select Analysis ToolPak and Analysis ToolPak–
VBA by ticking them and then click OK. Now, if you go back to DATA on the menu
bar, you will find Data Analysis added to the Analysis submenu. (Note that Analysis
ToolPak is not the same as Analysis ToolPak-VBA.) If Analysis ToolPak did not show
up as an option in the Add-ins menu, you will need to install it from the original Excel
or Microsoft Office CD by running the setup program and following the instructions.

If you click on Data Analysis, there are 19 menu items available. Click the one you
wish to use, and follow the instructions described in this book. For example, one of the
techniques in the menu, Descriptive Statistics, is described in Chapter 5.

Formula Bar and Insert Function fx

On the formula bar you will find the fx insert function. Clicking this button produces
other menus that allow you to specify functions that perform various calculations.

Saving Workbooks
To save a file (either one you created or one we created that you have altered) click the
FILE tab on the top left-hand corner of the screen and select the option Save as on the
drop-down menu. Select the folder in which you would like to save the file, then enter
the new file name and click Save. If you want to save changes to an already saved file
with the same name, choose Save on the drop-down menu. Caution, the original file
will now be overwritten.
20 minutes Students to work on the following questions:
2.3 For each of the following examples of data, determine the data type:
the number of daily global deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020
the department in which each of a sample of university professors teaches
the weekly closing price of gold throughout 2020
the size of soft drink (large, medium or small) ordered by each of a sample of customers
in a restaurant
the number of Toyota cars sold each month in Auckland

2.5 A random sample of 100 university academics was taken. Each academic was asked
the following questions. Identify the data type for each question.
What is your rank (lecturer, senior lecturer, associate professor, professor)?
What is your annual salary?
In which faculty (Arts, Science, Business, Engineering, etc.) of the university are you
employed?
 For how many years have you been an academic?
How many different courses have you taught?
5 minutes The tutor will provide an outline of next weeks’ tutorial topic.