Course descriptions

EPSY 3264— Basic and Applied Statistics (3 cr)
Introductory statistics. Emphasizes understanding/applying statistical concepts/procedures. Visual/quantitative methods for presenting/analyzing data, common descriptive indices for univariate/bivariate data. Inferential techniques.

EPSY 5200— Special Topics: Psychological Foundations. (1-4 cr)
Focus on special topics in psychological and methodological concepts relevant to advanced educational theory, research, and practice not covered in other courses.

EPSY 5216—Introduction to Research in Educational Psychology and Human Development. (3 cr)
Designing/conducting a research study. Reviewing literature, formulating research problem, using different approaches to gather data, managing/analyzing data, reporting results.

EPSY 5221—Principles of Educational and Psychological Measurement. (4 cr)
Concepts, principles, and methods in educational/psychological measurement. Reliability, validity, item analysis, scores, score reports (e.g., grades). Modern measurement theories, including item response theory and generalizability theory. Emphasizes construction, interpretation, use, and evaluation of assessments regarding achievement, aptitude, interests, attitudes, personality, and exceptionality.

EPSY 5222—Measurement and Analysis: K-12 Education Accountability. (3 cr)
Methods of educational accountability. Meaning of student/school accountability. Measurement of educational inputs, processes, and results. Data analysis, data use for school improvement.

EPSY 5231—Introductory Statistics and Measurement in Education. (4 cr) Students develop an understanding of basic statistics and measurement concepts and tools and apply them to the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data.

EPSY 5243—Principles and Methods of Evaluation. (3 cr)
Introduction to program evaluation; planning an evaluation study, collecting and analyzing information, reporting results; overview of the field of program evaluation.

EPSY 5244—Survey Design, Sampling, and Implementation. (3 cr)
Survey methods, including mail, phone, and Web-based/e-mail surveys. Principles of measurement, constructing questions/forms, pilot testing, sampling, data analysis, reporting. Students develop a survey proposal and a draft survey, pilot the survey, and develop sampling/data analysis plans.

EPSY 5246—Evaluation Colloquium: Psychological Foundations. (1 cr)
Informal seminar of faculty and advanced students interested in the issues and problems of program evaluation.

EPSY 5247—Qualitative Methods in Educational Psychology. (3 cr)
Introduction to qualitative methods of inquiry. Contrasting different research traditions (e.g., case study, phenomenology, ethnography, social interactionism, critical theory). Practice with field notes, observations, and interviewing. Use of NVIVO to track/code data.

EPSY 5261—Introductory Statistical Methods. (3 cr)
Application of statistical concepts/procedures. Graphs, numerical summaries. Normal distribution, correlation/regression analyses, probability, statistical inferences for one or two samples. Hypothesis tests, Chi-square tests. Conceptual understanding/application of statistics.

EPSY 5262—Intermediate Statistical Methods. (3 cr)
Application of statistical concepts/procedures. Analysis of variance, covariance, multiple regression. Experimental design: completely randomized, block, split plot/repeated measures.

EPSY 5271—Becoming a Teacher of Statistics. (3 cr)
Current methods of teaching first courses in statistics. Innovative teaching methods, materials, and technological tools. Types of first courses, reform recommendations, goals for student learning, recommended content, teaching methods, technology, student assessment.

EPSY 5272—Statistics Teaching Internship. (3 cr)
Supervised teaching experience.

EPSY 5273—Methodology Teaching Internship. (1 cr)
Supervised teaching experience as part of a course in statistics, measurement, or evaluation.

EPSY 5281—Introduction to Computer Operations and Data Analysis in Education and Related Fields. (3 cr)
General introductory computer literacy course to familiarize students with personal computers and computing resources at the University of Minnesota. Applications include electronic communications, spreadsheets, graphical presentation, and data analysis.

EPSY 8215—Advanced Research Methodologies in Education (3 cr)
Quantitative research methods, including models of scientific inquiry, role of theories/research design, role of measurement error in quantitative data-based inference, and qualitative methods of inquiry. Focuses on advanced quantitative/qualitative methodologies used in methodologically-oriented studies in educational measurement, evaluation, and stats.

EPSY 8216—Seminar: Research Processes in Psychological Foundations of Education. (3.0)
Advanced examination of research processes in educational psychology. Invited faculty discuss specific research designs. Students refine/implement research projects and present them in class.

EPSY 8221—Psychological Scaling. (3 cr)
Elementary and advanced topics in unidimensional and multidimensional scaling: measurement theory and statistics, rating scales and other category scaling methods, magnitude estimation, paired comparisons, multi- attribute scaling, and multidimensional scaling.

EPSY 8222—Advanced Measurement: Theory and Application. (4 cr) Generalizability theory, item response theory, factor models for test items, binomial model. Application to problems of designing, linking assessments. Includes a computer lab.

EPSY 8247—Advanced Interviewing and NVIVO (3 cr)
Practice in designing, conducting, and analyzing interviews. Students design interview protocols, video/audio tape themselves conducting interviews, analyze their techniques, and critique others. Students use NVIVO to analyze data they have collected.

EPSY 8261—Statistical Methods I: Probability and Inference. (3 cr) Advanced theory, derivations of quantitative statistics. Descriptive statistics, probability, normal distribution. One-/two-sample hypothesis tests, confidence intervals. One-way analysis of variance, follow up tests.

EPSY 8262—Statistical Methods II: Regression and the General Linear Model. (3 cr)
Analysis of variance designs (two-/three-way), repeated measures, correlation, simple/multiple regression methods, non-parametric procedures, multivariate analyses.

EPSY 8263—Design and Analysis of Experiments. (3 cr)
Advanced treatment of various experimental designs, including completely randomized factorial, randomized block, hierarchical, repeated measures, and Latin square designs. Major computer packages used for data analyses. Univariate and multivariate approaches to these designs.

EPSY 8264—Advanced Multiple Regression Analysis. (3 cr)
General linear model used as a context for regression. Matrix algebra, multiple regression, path analysis, polynomial regression, standardized regression, stepwise solutions, analysis of variance, weighted least squares, and logistic regression.

EPSY 8266—Statistical Analysis Using Structural Equation Methods. (3 cr)
Quantitative techniques using manifest and latent variable approaches for analysis of educational and social science data. Introduction to structural equation modeling approaches to multiple regression, factor analysis, and path modeling. Developing, estimating, and interpreting structural equation models.

EPSY 8267—Applied Multivariate Analysis. (3 cr)
Use/interpretation of results from several multivariate statistical techniques. Matrix algebra, variance/covariance, Hotelling's T2, GLM, MANOVA, MANCOVA, discriminant analysis, canonical correlations, dimensionality, principal components, latent composites, distance, hierarchical clustering.

EPSY 8268—Hierarchical Linear Modeling in Educational Research .(Proposed course, pending approval) (3 cr)
This course focuses on the conceptual framework of hierarchical linear models for nested data and their application in educational research. Topics include the nature and effects of nested data, logic of hierarchical models, mixed-effects models, estimation and hypothesis testing in these models, model-checking, and nonlinear models.

EPSY 8269— Matrix Algebra for Statistical Modeling. (2 cr)
The course covers linear and matrix algebra, including vector operations, applications to multivariate statistics; procedures for solving systems of linear equations; the geometry of vectors and matrices. It focuses on regression and regression diagnostics in a matrix framework. SPSS MATRIX language will be used.

EPSY 8271—Statistics Education Research Seminar: Studies on Teaching and Learning Statistics. (3 cr)
Introduction to classic/current research related to teaching/learning of statistics. Research from psychology, education, and statistics. Students focus on a particular research question and review the literature related to that question.

EPSY 8272— Nonparametric Statistics in Education. (Proposed course, pending approval) (3 cr)
The course covers a number of estimation and inferential techniques outside the realm of normal-theory tests. Areas covered will be (a) one-, two-, and K-sample procedures for between- and within-subject differences including factorial analysis of variance and covariance, (b) contingency table analysis (tests of independence and homogeneity).

EPSY 8281—Advanced Statistical Computing and Data Analysis. (3 cr)
Cross-disciplinary course. Students learn to use SAS statistical package to perform data management, data analysis, and report writing.

EPSY 8282—Statistical Analysis of Longitudinal Data. (3 cr)
This course will survey traditional and modern approaches to analyzing longitudinal data with emphasis on multilevel models for repeated measures. The discussion of traditional methods will include change scores, dependent t-test, repeated measures ANOVA and MANOVA. The discussion of modern approaches will include multilevel models (also known as hierarchical models) for repeated measures and latent growth curve analysis. In addition to the lecture material, students will work a number of projects that require the use of computer programs such as SPSS, HLM/2, and LISREL.

EPSY 8290—Special Topics: Seminar in Psychological Foundations (1-6 cr)
Students formulate research designs. Learning and cognition, social psychology, measurement, and statistics.

EPSY 8295—Evaluation Problems. (1-6 cr)
Independent study of an issue in theory or practice of program evaluation.

EPSY 8296—Evaluation Internship. (1-9 cr)
Hands-on experience in conducting a program evaluation in a real-world setting under supervision of an evaluation professional.

Descriptions of all educational psychology courses as well as courses outside of the College of Education and Human Development can be found at the University Catalogs.

March 2007