Question

How has attendance in a college class been affected by the change to distance education? Weekly absences of 2 separate, independent classes, one affected by distance ed and one not affected, were compared.

Here are the descriptive stats:

No Distance Ed	Distance Ed
mean = 2	mean = 3
sd = .86	sd = .79
n = 20	n = 20

The t observed for this independent t test is 3.82.

Conduct all 5 steps of the hypothesis test, except for step 3 which has been given to you above.

Label each step:

1. state hypotheses (sentences and statistical notation)

2. set decision criteria (alpha, # tails, df, c.v.) (Also, if you don't see the exact df in the table, choose the larger number.)

3. see above

4. make decision (reject or fail)

5. write up results (test and why, general result, evidence, direction of result)

*Note: 1 point for each item listed in parentheses.

Answer 1

1. H0: μ1 = μ2, There is no effect on attendance by the change to distance education

H1: μ1 ≠ μ2, There is an effect on attendance by the change to distance education

2. Test statistic = 3.82

Alpha = 0.05

Degrees of freedom: df = n1+n2-2 = 20+20-2 = 38

Critical value (Using Excel function T.INV.2T(probability, df)) = T.INV.2T(0.05,38) = 2.02

Reject H0 when test statistic is greater than 2.02

4. Decision: Since test statistic is more than 2.02, we reject the null hypothesis.

5. Conclusion: There is an effect on attendance by the change to distance education.