Marylynn Huggins MGT 2040, Business Statistics Project Summary

I am interested in how accounting students at SLCC utilize the free resources made available to
help with their learning of the subject matter. Do they differ by gender and choice of major
being pursued as well as credit hours when it comes to spending time in the Accounting Lab and
seeking help from either lab aides and/or the tutor?
The population I surveyed consisted of 43 college students attending accounting classes at SLCC
during Fall 2017 semester. The questions asked were: What is your gender? (F=Female,
M=Male), What is your major? AAS Accounting, AS Business, or Something else (please
specify) (40% were AAS Accounting degree students with 50% being female and 25% males),
How many hours in a week do you spend in the Accounting Lab? (responses were 0 to 11, 51%
indicated 0-1), During your visits to the Accounting Lab, how many times have you sought help
from the Lab Aides and/or the Accounting Tutor? (responses were 0 to 12, the average for
females was 1.4 and for males 0.9), How many college-level credit hours are you enrolled in for
this semester? (responses were 3 to 16 with a median of 9.5 for females and 12 for males, means
were not significantly different p-value = 0.2493).
Data recorded by the Online Tutoring department of SLCC shows that 30 accounting students
attempted and used the online tutoring option offered through Canvas this semester. Of those
students 40% were AAS Accounting degree students. Looking closer at the sample group shows
that of the students pursuing an AAS Accounting degree 50% are female and 25% are male.
Analysis of the data from the online tutoring department for the number of times a student sought
help shows an average of 1.53 times over 12 weeks of the semester. The breakdown of the data
also shows that 60% of the students seeking help online were female and 40% male. When
compared to the students who visited the Accounting Lab to get help during the first 3 weeks of
the semester, the average was 1.09. More than half of the students surveyed responded 0 to this
question.
The Colleges 2016-2017 Fact Book indicated that the average credit hours per student for the
fall was 8.61. http://performance.slcc.edu/Factbook/2016-17/A_enrollment/A_04.html That is
lower than both sample populations used for this project. The confidence interval for my sample
was 9.2 to 11.6 indicating accounting students at SLCC take at least 0.59 more credit hours than
the average student at SLCC did in 2016-17.
There is a negative linear relationship (p-value = 0.183436) between the number of hours spent
per week in the Accounting Lab and the number of credit hours enrolled.
I conclude SLCC Accounting students using the free resources provided by the college take more
credit hours than average, and those who spend more time in the Accounting Lab tend to take
fewer credit hours.