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The SPSS textbook sets the pace, one or two chapters a week, each followed by an assignment on its procedures.

Week one covers variables, research problems and questions, and how data are coded, entered and checked; week two covers measurement, descriptive statistics and checking assumptions.

Week three moves to managing data files, writing about descriptive results and choosing the right inferential test for a research question.

Week four covers cross-tabulation and chi-square, week five correlation and regression, week six t tests and their nonparametric counterparts, and weeks seven and eight analysis of variance.

Chapter outlines accompany each reading, and Keller and Alsdorf's book is read in the first three weeks, setting up the faith and learning forum later in the term.

Discussion forums fall every week, with a main thread and a reply on the week's statistical concepts, and the faith and learning forum runs from week seven into week eight.

Appendices on getting started with SPSS and on data entry are assigned in week one, which helps students who have never opened the program.

Each chapter works through example data sets, and the assignments ask students to repeat those procedures on new data and interpret the results.

Weekly presentations walk through each procedure in SPSS, which many students watch before attempting the assignment.

BUSI 820 is handled week by week, because each assignment depends on the chapter just read and the data file your section posts.

Each SPSS assignment is worked in SPSS itself. The writer runs the required procedures, checks assumptions where the chapter calls for it, and delivers the output file, the data file if variables were added or recoded, and a write-up that answers each question.

Results are reported in APA statistical style: the test, the statistic with its degrees of freedom, the exact p value, an effect size and a plain sentence on what the result means for the research question. A week-six item, for example, might report that employees in a mentoring program scored higher on engagement than those outside it, t(58) = 2.41, p = .019, d = 0.62, and explain what that difference does and does not show.

Forum threads explain the week's concept in clear doctoral prose, such as when a Spearman correlation is preferable to a Pearson, and replies extend a classmate's point with an example from business research.

The faith and learning forum connects Keller and Alsdorf's account of work to quantitative research, such as honesty in reporting results that disappoint a sponsor.

You submit every file and post every thread yourself.

Before each assignment is delivered, a second statistician reruns the key procedures to confirm the numbers.

Delivery comes several days before each deadline, which leaves time to open the output and read it beside the write-up.

BUSI 820 work goes to a quantitative researcher with a PhD or DBA who teaches statistics or research methods and uses SPSS in published research.

That experience shows in choices instructors notice: checking normality before a t test, reporting effect sizes as well as p values, and explaining why a post hoc test was chosen after an ANOVA.

It shows in the write-ups, which read like the results section of a journal article rather than a list of numbers.

The writer can also explain each step if you ask, which helps when the same procedures reappear in your applied doctoral project.

A second statistician checks each assignment's output and interpretation before release, and one writer covers the course.

Your identity stays with the coordinator.

Most have served as methodologists on doctoral committees, so they know how a quantitative applied doctoral project will build on these basics.

Software is the first hurdle. Many DBA students have never used SPSS, and the first assignments ask for data entry, coding and variable definitions before any statistics.

Test selection is the second. From week three on, students must decide which test fits a question, and choosing a t test where a chi-square is needed loses most of an assignment's points.

Interpretation is the third. SPSS produces many tables, and students often report the wrong statistic or omit the effect size.

Assumptions are the fourth: normality, homogeneity of variance and independence must be checked and reported, and what to do when they fail is a common question.

Pace runs through it all, with an assignment and a forum due every week.

Reporting is a quieter problem: APA statistical style has its own rules for italics, decimals and the order of values, and the rubric notices.

Because data entry and a forum are graded in the opening week, a statistician should have your data file on day one.

Each SPSS assignment reaches you several days before its week closes, with output and write-up.

Forum threads arrive early in their weeks, and replies once classmates have posted.

The eight assignments are the largest share of the quote; forums are small lines.

Any line can be removed before you agree, and a later start is priced from that week forward.

Each assignment package lists the procedures used, so you can find them in the chapter if your instructor asks.