The question
Name: ______________________ Date: ____________ Homework time in online and in-person sections (10 points)
Table
Weekly homework time by course format
A large university offers its introductory economics course in two formats, online and in person. An administrator selected an independent random sample of students from each format (from the hundreds enrolled in each) and asked how many hours they spent on homework for the course last week (invented data). Graphs of both samples show moderate right skew and no outliers. The administrator wants to know whether online students spend more time on homework, on average.
| Format | n | Mean | SD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online | 38 | 7.9 | 3.1 |
| In person | 42 | 6.6 | 2.7 |
(a) State the null and alternative hypotheses for the administrator's question, and define any parameters you use. [2 points]
(b) Identify the appropriate test by name and verify that its conditions are met. [3 points]
(c) Calculate the test statistic and the p-value. Show your work. [3 points]
(d) State the conclusion of the test at the significance level in context. Then explain whether the administrator can conclude that the online format causes students to spend more time on homework. [2 points]