Educators who teach programming subjects are often wondering "which programming language should I teach first?" The debate behind this question has a long history and coming up with a definite answer to this question would be farfetched. Nonetheless, several efforts can be identified in the literature wherein pros and cons of mainstream…

The Schwarz or Bayesian information criterion (BIC) is one of the most widely used tools for model comparison in social science research. The BIC, however, is not suitable for evaluating models with order constraints on the parameters of interest. This article explores two extensions of the BIC for evaluating order-constrained models, one where a…

R and Python are commonly used software languages for data analytics. Using these languages as the course software for the introductory course gives students practical skills for applying statistical concepts to data analysis. However, the reliance upon the command line is perceived by the typical nontechnical introductory student as sufficiently…