Giovanni,
I know what you mean, about how hard it is to find a forecasting text that's not too technical for your context, and yet introduces the main concepts.
What I found worked really well--and much appreciated by students for being much cheaper than buying a full, hard-bound textbook that's not fully utilized--was arranging for a publisher to make a custom text for my course; the course text included a subset of a textbook in their catalogue plus added some extra "Harvard Cases" for which the publisher could get the rights.
I last taught the course some years ago, so the specific book I based on was Wilson and Keating, Business Forecasting, 6h Edition. Toronto: McGraw Hill. --just including Chapters: 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10. ----> but I see that McGraw Hill has continued publishing updated editions by the same authors, so maybe they'd make a similar deal, now, if you asked them?
Note that that Wilson and Keating book included a CD for software called ForecastX, and for my class I got the permissions to distribute copies to the students. Again, I see the authors' newer books still include that software. Personally, though, I found that software a bit glitchy and found that Minitab statistical software (available in student editions) could run most of the needed procedures
Those two Harvard Cases I included in the custom text were old even when I used them, but remain quite clear and nice. (1) "Forecasting with regression analysis" (Note #9-894-007) and (2) "E.T. Phone Home, Inc. Forecasting Business Demand" (Case #9-583-121). The latter feels quaint for its reference to the old movie "E.T." and its attempt forecast the possible market for this new thing called cellular phones (!), and wondering whether, like beepers, before them, they'd primarily just appeal to business customers. But it makes a great example comparing that old, realistic forecast attempt with, historically, now knowing how things actually turned out.
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William (Bill) Goodman
Professor (Retired) and Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Business and Information Technology
Ontario Tech University
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-02-2024 15:30
From: Giovanni Petris
Subject: Time series/forecasting course for data science
I will be teaching a time seres and forecasting course for upper level undergraduates, for the most part data science majors. The statistical background of the students is not great, to say the least. All the standard time series book that I am familiar with (e.g., Shumway & Stoffer; Woodward, Gray and Elliott; Brockwell & Davis) would be too advanced for such a crowd. I wonder if anyone on this list has any suggestions about textbooks for such a course.
Thank you in advance!
Giovanni
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Giovanni Petris, PhD
Professor
Director of Statistics
Department of Mathematical Sciences
University of Arkansas - Fayetteville, AR 72701
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