POL 370 Week 6 Assignment

POL 370 Week 6 Assignment | southern-new-hampshire-university

6-1 Exercise: Randomness in Establishing Samples

Instructions

Complete Exercise # 1 on page 152 of the textbook on demonstrating the importance of randomness in establishing samples.

Pol 370: 6-1 Exercise: Randomness in Establishing Samples

SNHU

The instructor of a large-enrollment (200 students) international relations (IR) course would like to obtain a random sample of 100 of his students. The sampled students will play StateArt, a month-long game designed to simulate diplomatic, military, and trade relations among countries. The unsampled students will not play the game. The instructor plans to give players and nonplayers an end-of-semester quiz to see whether StateArt players obtained a better grasp of IR events and concepts. To select the sample, the instructor posts the following appeal on the course website: “Sign up for StateArt, an exciting new way to learn IR! Signing bonus: 5 extra-credit points immediately added to last week’s midterm exam! Note: Familiarity with computer simulations helpful…but not required.” The instructor accepts recruits until 100 have signed up, at which point he closes the link. Of the 100 students who began the game, 75 complete the month-long simulation.

A.    The instructor’s sample selection process suffers from selection bias. Describe three ways in which the sampled students will be systematically different from the un sampled students.

B.    The instructor’s protocol suffers from response bias. Describe two ways in which students who completed the game will be systematically different from those who began but did not complete the game.

C.    Consider the instructor’s end-of-semester quiz. Based on your ideas in parts A and B, do you think the State Art players will score better, worse, or about the same as non players? Explain.