Building Statistical Foundations: From Sampling Techniques to Informed Inferences.
This course offers a foundational introduction to the principles of statistics, focusing on sampling techniques, the Central Limit Theorem (CLT), and the concept of standard error. Students will explore the process of selecting representative samples from larger populations, a crucial step in making valid statistical inferences. Various sampling methods, such as simple random sampling, stratified sampling, cluster sampling, and systematic sampling, will be covered in detail, enabling students to understand how to collect data that accurately represents a broader group. The importance of sampling in real-world applications will be emphasized, including considerations of bias and sampling error that can impact the validity of conclusions drawn from sample data.
A central focus of the course is the Central Limit Theorem, a key statistical concept that underpins much of inferential statistics. Through examples and hands-on exercises, students will learn how the CLT allows statisticians to approximate the distribution of sample means as normal, even when the population distribution is not normal. This property is foundational to many statistical methods, such as hypothesis testing and confidence interval estimation. Understanding the CLT enables students to appreciate the role of sample size, as larger samples yield distributions of sample means that are more consistently normal and provide a closer approximation of population parameters.
The course also introduces the concept of standard error, which measures the variability of a sample statistic, such as the sample mean, around the true population parameter. Students will examine how standard error reflects the precision of sample estimates and how it can be minimized through increased sample sizes. Applications of standard error in constructing confidence intervals and performing hypothesis tests will be covered, allowing students to quantify uncertainty and make informed inferences based on sample data.
Throughout the course, students will work on practical examples that demonstrate the applications of statistical concepts across various fields, such as social science research, economics, and quality control. These examples will illustrate how sampling, the CLT, and standard error are applied in real-world scenarios to draw conclusions about larger populations from sample data. By the end of the course, students will be equipped with essential statistical tools and techniques, laying the groundwork for more advanced studies in statistics and data analysis. This course is designed for students beginning their exploration of statistical methods, providing a robust introduction to the basics of data collection, analysis, and inference.
CPA, CGMA, M.S. Tax, CPI
Through working with students from many different schools, Mr. Steele has learned best practices for helping people understand accounting fast. Learning new skills and finding the best way to share knowledge with people who can benefit from it is a passion of his. Mr. Steele has experience working as a practicing Certified Public Accountant (CPA), an accounting and business instructor, and curriculum developer. He has enjoyed putting together quality tools to improve learning and has been teaching, making instructional resources, and building curriculum since 2009. He has been a practicing CPA since 2005. Mr. Steele is a practicing CPA, has a Certified Post-Secondary Instructor (CPI) credential, a Master of Science in taxation from Golden Gate University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Economics with an emphasis in accounting from The University of California Santa Barbara, and a Global Management Accounting Designation (CGMA) from The American Institute of CPA (AICPA). Mr. Steele has also authored five books that can be found on Amazon or in audiobook format on Audible. He has developed bestselling courses in accounting topics including financial accounting and QuickBooks accounting software. In addition to working as an accountant, teaching, and developing courses Mr. Steele has helped create an accounting website at accountinginstruction, a YouTube channel called Accounting Instruction, Help, and How Too, and has developed supplemental resources including a Facebook Page, Twitter Page, and Podcasts that can be found on I-tunes, Stitcher, or Soundcloud. Mr. Steele's teaching philosophy is to make content applicable, understandable, and accessible. Adult learners are looking for application when they learn new skills. In other words, learners want to be able to apply skills in the real world to help their lives. Mr. Steele’s formal accounting education, practical work experience, and substantial teaching experience allow him to create a curriculum that combines traditional accounting education with practical knowledge and application. He accomplishes the goals of making accounting useful and applicable by combining theory with real-world software like Excel and QuickBooks. Many courses teach QuickBooks data entry or Excel functions but are not providing the real value learners want. Real value is a result of learning technical skills like applications, in conjunction with specific goals, like accounting goals, including being able to interpret the performance of a business. Mr. Steele makes knowledge understandable by breaking down complex concepts into smaller units with specific objectives and using step by step learning processes to understand each unit. Many accounting textbooks cram way too much information into a course, making it impossible to understand any unit fully. By breaking the content down into digestible chunks, we can move forward much faster. Mr. Steele also makes use of color association in both presentations and Excel worksheets, a learning tool often overlooked in the accounting field, but one that can vastly improve the speed and comprehension of learning accounting concepts. The material is also made understandable through the application of concepts learned. Courses will typically demonstrate the accounting concepts and then provide an Excel worksheet or practice problems to work through the concepts covered. The practice problems will be accompanied by an instructional video to work through the problem in step by step format. Excel worksheets will be preformatted, usually including an answer tab that shows the completed problem, and a practice tab where learners can complete the problem along with a step by step presentation video. Mr. Steele makes learning accounting accessible by making use of technology and partnering with teaching platforms that have a vision of spreading knowledge like CPDformula.
Provincial regulators of CPAs in Canada do not require that independent providers of CPD be approved to offer courses. Instead, individual CPAs are responsible for assessing whether a CPD activity meets their requirements, and may take activities from any source provided those requirements are met.
Every course offered on LearnFormula is delivered by a qualified subject matter expert or learning organization, and advances learning objectives that are relevant to the responsibilities or professional competencies of Canadian CPAs. All activities on LearnFormula are quantifiable in terms of hours, and are also verifiable, in that users receive documented evidence of their attendance via a certificate of completion after finishing a course (and this certificate is stored by LearnFormula indefinitely). Nearly 100,000 Canadian CPAs successfully satisfy their CPD requirements via LearnFormula on an annual basis.
