Description
CI-FC-01 Forecasting and Statistics
Course Overview
The aim of this Forecasting and Statistics module is to provide the student with the knowledge and ability to apply forecasting in the analytical environment. This module consists of the basic and intermediate sections from the CI-01 and CI-02 courses. It is intended for students not requiring the full analysis courses.
Course aim
To introduce students to the topic of forecasting, and illustrate how forecasting and statistical techniques can be used to predict future crime and incident levels.
Objectives
By the end of the lesson the student should be able to:
- State the difference between Descriptive and Inferential statistics
- Define the meaning of ‘Measures of Location
- Calculate and subsequently interpret the mean, median and mode
- State the strengths and weaknesses of the various measures of location
- Describe a ‘Normal Distribution’
- Define the meaning of ‘Measures of Spread’
- Describe example of ‘Measures of Spread’
- Calculate and subsequently interpret the ‘Range’ and ‘Interquartile Range’
- Define the meaning of ‘Form of the Distribution’
- Calculate and subsequently interpret ‘Skewness and Kurtosis’
- Create a ‘Five Figure Summary and use it to compare data sets
- Create and interpret Box and Whisker Diagrams
- Use MS Excel to generate a range of Descriptive statistics
- Define what a ‘Percentage’ is
- Apply percentages in three different ways
- State what forecasting is
- Explain how forecasting can be used to predict future crime and incident levels
- State what Time Series is
- State what the goals of time series analysis are
- Describe the components of time series data
- Describe the purpose of smoothing
- Describe how the technique of Moving Average Smoothing is used
- State what Linear Regression is
- Describe how Linear regression can be used to
- Describes the components of Linear regression
- Explain how Smoothing and Linear Regression can be used together to predict the future
The module content is delivered by means of video presentations with supporting written chapters, exercises and quizzes.
The video presentations and manual should be referred to together to complete this module.
Duration of this course
This is a one module input and is expected to take between 3 and 6 hours to complete. However, individual students work at their own pace and so this estimate should be used as a rough guide only – it may take you longer or you may complete the course in a shorter time.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you have been approved as a student and purchased access to this course, you will have a maximum of 1 month to complete it. If you do not finish the course within 1 month then you will need to sign up again.
Availability
This course is available:
How is the course presented?
You will take this module online – the features of this course include:
- Narrated video presentations to help you understand the topics covered;
- Downloadable content – such as documents and images;
- Assessed knowledge check;
- Links to useful websites and other material;
- Online forum to keep in touch with other students and your tutor;
- Email contact with your tutor;
If you require this course to be delivered in a classroom then please contact us for details.
Steve Berry –
A little bit more explanation over linear regression would have been useful.
(Claire Read 04/03/2018)
I enjoyed the whole thing apart from there is nothing at the end that tells you if you have passed or failed. You get a percentage score for the course but there is no context as to what it actually means. So I don’t know if I passed or not.
(Matt Liston 01/03/2016) I.A Rep: This is now clearer and pass certificate issued.
I found that the site itself was difficult to navigate through. I missed a question and could not get back to enter an answer. (One of the key components to this was to closely follow the instructions SB)
(Liane Kastely 01/04/2015)
Great course but the quizes were tricky. For example, one question, I gave the full number including decimal etc. and it was marked wrong as it was rounded up. The next question I rounded and it was marked wrong because of the decimal. It was unclear during the quiz which format to use. Also, not going back to check your answers. I know on one question I put “2” instead of a “3” and hit enter and as soon as I did, I saw my error and couldn’t change it and it was marked wrong of course, even though I knew the right answer. (Scoring amended since this feedback SB)
(Michelle Stinson 19/03/2015)
This course was very informative
(Jennifer Kinsella 11/03/2015)
Steve Berry –
I found the videos quite hard going all in one go, and sometimes confusing. The forecasting quiz wasn’t very representative of what had been shown on the videos so some of the exercises were misleading.
(Sarah Parker 07/12/2021)