Researchers from the Pace University Lubin School of Business conducted a study on Internet-supported courses. In one part of the study, four numerical variables were collected on 108 students in an introductory management course that met once a week for an entire semester. One variable collected was hit consistency. To measure hit consistency, the researchers did the following: If a student did not visit the Internet site between classes, the student was given a 0 for that time period. If a student visited the Internet site one or more times between classes, the student was given a 1 for that time period. Because there were 13 time periods, a student's score on hit consistency could range from 0 to 13.
The other three variables included the student's course average, the student's cumulative grade point average (GPA), and the total number of hits the student had on the Internet site supporting the course. The following table gives the correlation coefficient for all pairs of variables. Note that correlations marked with an * are statistically significant, using a = 0.001:
Variable Correlation
Course Average, Cumulative GPA................0.72*
Course Average, Total Hits..........................0.08
Course Average, Hit Consistency.................0.37*
Cumulative GPA, Total Hits........................0.12
Cumulative GPA, Hit Consistency...............0.32*
Total Hits & Hit Consistency.....................0.64*
a. What conclusions can you reach from this correlation analysis?
b. Are you surprised by the results, or are they consistent with your own observations and experiences?