EDMS 657: Factor Analysis FALL SEMESTER 2010 Professor Office hours Dr. Gregory R. Hancock Thursdays 3:00-4:00pm; other times by appointment 1230D Benjamin Bldg. Hours are open -- first come, first serve tel: 301.405.3621, fax: 301.314.9245 (unless by appointment at another time) e-mail: [email protected] Course material required: • Brown, T. A. (2006). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. New York: The Guilford Press. • Dunteman, G. H. (1989). Principal components analysis. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE. • Pett, M. A., Lackey, N. R., & Sullivan, J. J. (2003). Making sense of factor analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. optional: • Mulaik, S. A. (2010). Foundations of factor analysis (2nd ed.). Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall / CRC. Weekly lecture materials Prior to coming to class each week students are to print out lecture materials for that week from the instructor's website: http://education.umd.edu/EDMS/fac/Hancock/greg.html Materials should be posted by midday of the day of class. General Course Information This is intended to be a course addressing both theory and application of factor analysis and related methods. It requires prior experience with inferential statistics up through multiple regression (e.g., EDMS 651), as well as a familiarity with SPSS. The SPSS software package is available in the lab in the basement of the Benjamin Building. Students interested in purchasing a version of the SPSS program for their personal use should be aware that the cheaper Student version has not historically contained factor analysis capabilities; the more expensive Graduate version (GradPack) has been necessary. Toward the end of the semester we will also use special software (LISREL) for doing more advanced topics in factor analysis. More information on that will be provided as the course develops. Formal Course Assessment Homework: There will be several assignments, each designed to give students a chance to practice the concepts learned in class. Most of the homework problems will involve using software. You are welcome to work together on homework, although you are expected to submit you own work with explanations in your own words. Typed work is much preferred, although neatly handwritten work is acceptable. You should insert relevant portions of your computer output into the appropriate places in your homework to show where you got your answers. Students should not write, "See p.136 of the attached computer printout to see where I got my answer.” Assignments should be very neat, and free from spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. Also, please keep a copy of your work for your own protection. Assignments are due as specified in class, and should be submitted on time for full earned credit. Late work will be accepted for full earned credit if and only if arrangements are made with the instructor prior to time due. Otherwise, 5% of the points possible will be deducted for each weekday the assignment is late. Quizzes: At the start of every other class (except for the day of the midterm) a short quiz will be administered (dates announced in class throughout the semester). Each quiz will cover material from the lessons since the last quiz, unless otherwise specified, and should not take more than 10 or 15 minutes. Students who miss the quiz will not be able to make it up unless prior arrangements have been made with the instructor. You may use one 8.5"x11", two-sided page of notes (experience has taught me, however, that students tend to be much better prepared if they don't need to rely on it too heavily). Students should bring a calculator to the quizzes. Exams: There will be an in-class midterm exam in late October (date will be announced in class) and an in-class final exam during finals week (12/16). For each exam, students may use three 8.5"x11" two-sided pages of notes; tables and scratch paper will be provided by the instructor at the time of the exam as needed. Students should bring a calculator to the exams. Exams are to be done completely independently; any student found cheating will be subject to the maximum university penalties (see Academic Integrity, below).Course grades This course is not graded on a curve. Your homework and exams will be combined according to the percentages shown on the left. A worksheet for computing grades will be given to you later in the semester. Final grades will then be assigned based on the scale to the right (there will be no rounding): Homework and computer exercises 35% 98.0000 % — 100 % A+ Quizzes 10% 92.0000 % — 97.9999 % A Midterm 25% 90.0000 % — 91.9999 % A- Final Exam 30% 88.0000 % — 89.9999 % B+ 82.0000 % — 87.9999 % B 80.0000 % — 81.9999 % B- 78.0000 % — 79.9999 % C+ 72.0000 % — 77.9999 % C 70.0000 % — 71.9999 % C- 65.0000 % — 69.9999% D+ 60.0000 % — 64.9999% D 55.0000 % — 59.9999% D- ≤54.9999% F Unless a computational error has been made, grades will not be changed after the end of the semester. Please do not come to my office with "extenuating circumstances" for why your grade should be changed. Also, please do not come seeking extra-credit opportunities; course grades are based only on the above information. If you find these grading criteria to be unsatisfactory, you may wish to seek out another advanced statistics class. Grades of "Incomplete": Unless the student can demonstrate that near catastrophic events have led to a case of extreme hardship, grades of "Incomplete" will not be given for EDMS 657. Policy on auditors Student and faculty auditors are welcome in this class. They are requested not to submit work, however. Part of what allows me to have such a large class is that auditors honor this request. Thank you. Academic Accommodations In compliance with and in the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), I want to work with you if you have a documented disability that is relevant to your work in this course. If you need academic accommodation by virtue of a documented disability, please contact me as soon as possible to discuss your needs. Students with documented needs for an accommodation must meet the same achievement standards required of all other students, although the exact way in which achievement is demonstrated may be altered. All requests for academic accommodations