Here is an updated presentation on the title topic. I hope you find the presentation helpful.

I teach the "research" course - this means many thing to many people. To academics (Ph.Ds ) it means social science research. To lecturers/adhocs research (for marketing) means something a bit different. No matter what you think the class should consist of, statistics are a must.

Businesses use statistics, academics use statistics and yes, my argument to the least likely to appreciate it - sports journalists  (students) should use statistics... Unfortunately statistics involve numbers. The numbers are generally part of formulas, and formulas generally mean MATH. This is a scary, scary word to many comm/j-school students.

But it doesn't have to be. Today we finished up our lecture on standard deviation. I used the Khan Academy - thank you Sal for being the inspiration behind LOVING math, science, numbers and everything you can do with them. Together with a few Khan academy clips - http://www.khanacademy.org/
1. Central Tendencies
2. Sample vs. Population Mean
3. Variance of a Population
4. Sample Variance

and a handy dandy worksheet made by yours truly... See the sheet below.

Standard Deviation is made simple (and gasp - understandable).

I had a student high-five me after class because, "After 21 years, I finally understand standard deviation." = SUCCESS :)