Business School

School of Risk and Actuarial Studies

ACTL3142 / ACTL5110
Actuarial Data and Analysis

Course Outline
Semester 2, 2016
Part A: Course-Specific Information
Please consult Part B for key information on Business School policies
(including those on plagiarism and special consideration), student
responsibilities and student support services.

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Table of Contents
PART A: COURSE-SPECIFIC INFORMATION

STAFF CONTACT DETAILS

COURSE DETAILS

2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5

Teaching Times and Locations

Units of Credit
Summary of Course
Course Aims and Relationship to Other Courses
Student Learning Outcomes

1
2
2
2
3

LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES

3.1 Approach to Learning and Teaching in the Course

3.2 Learning Activities and Teaching Strategies

5
5

ASSESSMENT

4.1 Formal Requirements

4.2 Details of each assessment task:

6
6

COURSE RESOURCES

COURSE EVALUATION AND DEVELOPMENT

COURSE SCHEDULE

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PART A: COURSE-SPECIFIC INFORMATION

1

STAFF CONTACT DETAILS

The Course Coordinator and Lecturer in Charge is Associate Professor Bernard Wong:
Staff

E-mail

Associate Professor
[email protected]
Bernard Wong

Room

Telephone

Business
School 641

9385 2827

He is responsible for course administration, teaching and final assessment of the course.
His consultation times during the semester will be posted (and updated) on the course
website.
The Tutor for the course is:

Staff

E-mail

Maaz Rahman

[email protected]

The tutor will hold consultation at the front of the School of Risk and Actuarial Studies
office (UNSW Business School Building, Level 6) in the week before any in-session
assessment. The consultation times will be advertised on the course website.

2
2.1

COURSE DETAILS
Teaching Times and Locations

Lectures
Lectures will be held on Tuesdays from 4pm to 6pm in Richie Theatre from week 2
to week 13 (excluding public holidays). Additional lecture time on Thursdays 11amnoon at CLB2 has also been reserved to be used as needed.
Labs (Tutorials)
Lab classes will be held at the following times
ACTL3142
Thursday

10am-11am

Business School
Lab 1

Thursday

3pm-4pm

Quad G021

Thursday

4pm-5pm

Quad G021

ACTL5110

Students must attend the lab/tutorial for which they are enrolled. Attendance will be
recorded and counts towards meeting the requirements to pass the course; for more
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information, see Part B of the Course Outline. If you wish to change your tutorial then
you must lodge an application to change your tutorial time with the Business School
Student Centre.
Timetables and locations are correct at time of editing. A full timetable of lectures and
topics is provided later in this Course study guide. Any alterations to the lecture times or
locations will be advised in lectures and via the Course website.
2.2 Units of Credit
The course is worth 6 units of credit. The lectures of ACTL3142 and ACTL5110 are
held jointly, although lab sessions are separate.
2.3 Summary of Course
This course covers the techniques in data analysis including techniques for mortality,
health, and insurance data used in actuarial analysis and decision-making. Particular
focus will be on techniques often referred to by predictive analytics and statistical
learning, and their applications to actuarial work.
The course covers aspects of data analysis including exploratory data analysis,
classification and prediction with regression models; descriptive, inferential and
predictive analysis and models; and statistical and machine learning including
supervised and unsupervised learning. The course also covers ethical, regulatory and
professional issues, and risks and risk management associated with using data and data
analysis. A particular focus will be placed on communication of technical results for
business applications.
2.4

Course Aims and Relationship to Other Courses

The aims of this course are to provide students with an understanding of the main techniques
predictive analytics / data analytics techniques of particular relevance to actuarial work,
including

Regression techniques and classification methods

Model selection and validation methods including cross validation and dimension
reduction.
Linear and Non-linear models
Decision Trees and extensions
Supervised and unsupervised learning techniques

This course is offered as an elective in the undergraduate (ACTL3142) and postgraduate

programs (ACTL5110) in the school of risk and actuarial studies.

Students are assumed to have a good mathematics background and a solid

understanding of the concepts of probability and statistics, and actuarial modelling, as
covered in the combination of courses ACTL2111 and ACTL2131 (for ACTL3142), or
the combination ACTL5101 and ACTL5102 (for ACTL5110). These courses are the
formal prerequisites for ACTL3142 and ACTL5110, respectively.
Students need to be able to use a word processing package (such as WORD) and a spreadsheet
(such as EXCEL). They should also be able to use the statistical software package R which will
be used to implement many of the models discussed in this course, and in particular in the lab
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classes. Students who are not as familiar with R are highly recommended to go through the
module R U ready on the ACTL All students site.

2.5

Student Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, you should be able to:

Understand aspects of the theory and practice of predictive analytics / data analytics for
insurance and financial applications as covered in the course aims. [LO1]
Assess models used for predictive analytics / data analytics in practice and their
advantages and shortcomings. [LO2]
Estimate and apply various statistical learning models for practical applications. [LO3]
Understand and explain ethical and regulatory issues associated with the use of data and
analytic techniques. [LO4]
Use effective presentation, discussion and report writing skills for explaining riskmodelling concepts used in quantitative risk management. [LO5]

UNSW Business School Program Learning Goals

The Course Learning Outcomes are what you should be able to DO by the end of this
course if you participate fully in learning activities and successfully complete the
assessment items.
The Learning Outcomes in this course also help you to achieve some of the overall
Program Learning Goals and Outcomes for all postgraduate coursework students in the
Business School. Program Learning Goals are what we want you to BE or HAVE by the
time you successfully complete your degree (e.g. be an effective team player). You
demonstrate this by achieving specific Program Learning Outcomes - what you are able
to DO by the end of your degree (e.g. participate collaboratively and responsibly in
teams).
ACTL3142
Business School Undergraduate Program Learning Goals and Outcomes
1. Knowledge: Our graduates will have in-depth disciplinary knowledge applicable in local and global
contexts.
You should be able to select and apply disciplinary knowledge to business situations in a local and global
environment.
2. Critical thinking and problem solving: Our graduates will be critical thinkers and effective problem solvers.
You should be able to identify and research issues in business situations, analyse the issues, and propose appropriate
and well-justified solutions.
3. Communication: Our graduates will be effective professional communicators.
You should be able to:
a. Prepare written documents that are clear and concise, using appropriate style and presentation for the
intended audience, purpose and context, and
b. Prepare and deliver oral presentations that are clear, focused, well-structured, and delivered in a
professional manner.
4. Teamwork: Our graduates will be effective team participants.
You should be able to participate collaboratively and responsibly in teams, and reflect on your own teamwork, and on
the teams processes and ability to achieve outcomes.

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5. Ethical, social and environmental responsibility: Our graduates will have a sound awareness of the ethical,
social, cultural and environmental implications of business practice.
You should be able to:
a. Identify and assess ethical, environmental and/or sustainability considerations in business decision-making
and practice, and
b. Identify social and cultural implications of business situations.

For more information on the Undergraduate Coursework Program Learning Goals and
Outcomes, see Part B of the course outline.
ACTL5110
Business School Postgraduate Coursework Program Learning Goals and Outcomes
1. Knowledge: Our graduates will have current disciplinary or interdisciplinary knowledge applicable in local
and global contexts.
You should be able to identify and apply current knowledge of disciplinary or interdisciplinary theory and
professional practice to business in local and global environments.
2. Critical thinking and problem solving: Our graduates will have critical thinking and problem solving skills
applicable to business and management practice or issues.
You should be able to identify, research and analyse complex issues and problems in business and/or management,
and propose appropriate and well-justified solutions.
3. Communication: Our graduates will be effective communicators in professional contexts.
You should be able to:
a. Produce written documents that communicate complex disciplinary ideas and information effectively for the
intended audience and purpose, and
b. Produce oral presentations that communicate complex disciplinary ideas and information effectively for the
intended audience and purpose.
4. Teamwork: Our graduates will be effective team participants.
You should be able to participate collaboratively and responsibly in teams, and reflect on your own teamwork, and on
the teams processes and ability to achieve outcomes.
5. Ethical, social and environmental responsibility: Our graduates will have a sound awareness of ethical,
social, cultural and environmental implications of business issues and practice.
You should be able to:
a. Identify and assess ethical, environmental and/or sustainability considerations in business decision-making
and practice, and
b. Consider social and cultural implications of business and /or management practice.
6. Leadership: Our graduates will have an understanding of effective leadership. (MBA and MBT programs
only).
You should be able to reflect on your personal leadership experience, and on the capabilities necessary for
leadership.

For more information on the Postgraduate Coursework Program Learning Goals and
Outcomes, see Part B of the course outline.
Program Learning Goals
and Outcomes
This course helps you to
achieve the following
learning goals for all
UNSW Business School

Course Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, you
should be able to:

Course Assessment Item

This learning outcome will
be assessed in the
following items:

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postgraduate coursework
students:
1
Knowledge

LO1-LO3

Assignment
Mid-term Exam
Final Exam

Critical thinking
and problem
solving

LO1-LO3

Assignment
Mid-term Exam
Final Exam

3a

Written
communication

LO1-LO3, LO5

Assignment

3b

Oral
communication

n/a

Teamwork

n/a

5a.

Ethical,
environmental and
sustainability
responsibility
Social and
cultural awareness

LO4

Final Exam

n/a

Final Exam

5b.

LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES

3.1

Approach to Learning and Teaching in the Course

The course textbooks, lectures and assessment tasks are designed to provide a framework for
your learning. Every student has a different approach to learning. How much time you spend on
reading in preparation for lectures, completing assessment tasks, reviewing course objectives,
deepening your understanding and preparing for final examinations will depend on your
learning approach. Lectures will generally cover the main concepts and issues and will not
necessarily cover all the details of the course readings or texts. It is expected that you have read
the reading material for the lecture in advance. Students who are successful in this course take
an active approach to learning.

3.2

Learning Activities and Teaching Strategies

The learning activities of this course involve three key components the lecture, the labs, the
assignments, and your private study. Each lecture will provide a short overview of topic at hand
and will then focus on explaining the difficult concepts and issues. The role of the lecture is to
help you understand the context of the topic as well as work through the difficult points. To
maximize your achievements in each lecture you should read the assigned notes prior to each
class. The assignments present you with a practical application of course concepts to a problem
in data analytics (see also assessments section, below). Your private study is the most important
component of this course. Weekly readings, solving problems, and your own topic summaries
form the basis of an excellent private study regime. Keeping up to date is very important and
each week builds on the prior weeks so it is important that you get your study regime organised
quickly.
Students are not permitted to bring into the class any sound or video recording devices.

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ASSESSMENT

4.1

Formal Requirements

In order to pass this course, you must:

achieve a composite mark of at least 50%; and

make a satisfactory attempt at all assessment tasks.

4.2 Assessment Details

Assessment of your performance in the course will be done through a number of tasks, whose
list you will find in the following table with relevant details.

4.2

Assessment Task

Weighting

Length

Due Date

Mid Session exam

15%

1 hour

16:00 on 30 August, 2016

Assignment

25%

Final Examination

60%

TOTAL

100%

14:00 on 12 October, 2016

2 hours

University
Period.

Examination

Details of each assessment task:

4.3.1 Assignment
The Assignment is intended to develop your skills in research and your ability to concisely and
coherently present your ideas. It is intended to be part of achieving course learning outcomes 1,
2, 3, 4, and 6, and program learning goals 1-3.
There will be one major assignment task involving application of course concepts to data
analysis and practical risk management decision-making. Details will be provided through the
course blackboard web site. The assignment will allow students the opportunity to develop their
understanding of the issues involved in estimating and applying models for various risks and
broaden their knowledge of course topics. Marks will be awarded for
Accuracy of results
Presentation
Reasonableness checks applied
Technical details
The assignment questions will be posted on the course moodle website on or before 6pm, 21st
August, 2016. It will be due (submitted via TURNITIN on the course website) by 2pm, 12th
October, 2016.
Students are reminded that the work they submit must be their own. While we have no problem
(and in fact, it is encouraged, to interact with your peers to enhance your learning) with students
working together on the assignment problems, the material students submit for assessment must
be their own (including any R code submitted which cannot be identical).
Assignment submission procedure

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Assignments must be submitted via the Turnitin submission box that is available on the course
website. Turnitin reports on any similarities between their own cohorts assignments, and also
with regard to other sources (such as the internet or all assignments submitted all around the
world via Turnitin). More information is available at:
https://student.unsw.edu.au/turnitin
Please read this page, as we will assume that its content is familiar to you. You will be able to
make multiple submissions, with only the final (on time) submission being used for grading.
Please note that it is assignments MUST be submitted prior to the due time and date. The
School of Risk and Actuarial Studies has a policy of grading late assignments with a zero mark.
Punctual submission of work is required in order to satisfy the requirements of the course.
Turnitin will not accept any late submission. The assignment may be marked at the discretion
of the course co-ordinator if there is a valid reason for late submission and used in cases where
your final overall results are marginal.
You need to check your document once it is submitted (check it on-screen). We will not mark
assignments that cannot be read on screen.
Students are reminded of the risk that technical issues may delay or even prevent their
submission (such as internet connection and/or computer breakdowns). Students should then
consider either submitting their assignment from the university computer rooms or allow
enough time (at least 24 hours is recommended) between their submission and the due
time. The Turnitin module will not let you submit a late report. No paper copy will be either
accepted or graded.
In case of a technical problem, the full document must be submitted to the course coordinator
before the due time by e-mail, with explanations about why the student was not able to submit
on time. In principle, this assignment will not be marked. It is only in exceptional
circumstances where the assignment was submitted before the due time by e-mail that it may be
markedand this only if a valid reason is established.

4.3.2

Mid Session Exam

The mid session exam will assess critical analysis and problem solving skills as well as written
communication skills, and corresponds to course learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and
postgraduate program learning goals 1-3. In addition, the class test provides a feedback
mechanism for students to gauge their progress in the course.
The date and time for the test is 30th August April, 2016, and will be at the normal lecture
___location. The test will be administered at 4:00pm, and will be worth 15% of the total assessment
for the course. The test will be closed book.
Normal examination rules apply to the conduct of class tests. Calculators will be allowed in the
class tests and the final examination but a clear indication of all of the steps involved in your
calculations must be shown. The University will not supply calculators to students for use in
examinations where the provision of calculators has not been requested by the course examiner.
It is the students responsibility to be familiar with the rules governing the conduct of
examinations.
The mid session exam requires written responses, with students earning marks for correct
explanations of the main concepts and issues examined in each question. Marks for calculation
questions will be granted on mathematical working as well as part marks for incorrect responses

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with correct method and reasoning. They test not only your knowledge of the material, but also
the depth of your understanding of it.

4.3.3 Final Exam

The final examination will be a two hour written paper. The examination will aim to
assess the achievement of the learning outcomes of the course including the course
aims. The examination will assess critical analysis and problem solving skills as well as
written communication skills, and correspond to course learning outcomes 1-6, and
postgraduate program learning goals 1, 2, 3, 5.
4.4

Late Submission

Late submission of any assessment item will not be accepted unless the requirements relating to
Special Consideration apply (see Part B Course Outline).

Quality Assurance
The Business School is actively monitoring student learning and quality of the
student experience in all its programs. A random selection of completed assessment
tasks may be used for quality assurance, such as to determine the extent to which
program learning goals are being achieved. The information is required for
accreditation purposes, and aggregated findings will be used to inform changes
aimed at improving the quality of Business School programs. All material used for
such processes will be treated as confidential.

COURSE RESOURCES

There are many books of relevance to the course topics. The following book will be the main
text references for a substantial part of the course:

James, G., Witten, D., Hastie, T., Tibshirani, R., An Introduction to Statistical Learning
with Applications in R, Springer, 2013
Additional readings from the professional actuarial literature will also be used to
provided additional context, details, and examples. This will be communicated in the
course website.
Course Website

The course website is available from the UNSW TELT platform:

http://elearning.unsw.edu.au/
To access the online support site for students, follow the links from that website to
Support for Students. Additional technical support can be obtained from
[email protected] (02 9385 1333).
All course contents will be available from the course website. It is essential that you visit the
site regularly to see any notices posted there by the course coordinator, as it will be
assumed that they are known to you within a reasonable time.
Actuaries Institute

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The Actuaries Institute allows students to become University Subscribers free of charge.
Full time undergraduates studying at an Institute accredited university who are members
of a university student actuarial society are eligible.
To sign up, go to
http://www.actuaries.asn.au/Membership/MembershipoftheInstitute/Subscriber.aspx

COURSE EVALUATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Each year feedback is sought from students and other stakeholders about the courses
offered in the School and continual improvements are made based on this feedback.
UNSW's Course and Teaching Evaluation and Improvement (CATEI) Process is one of
the ways in which student evaluative feedback is gathered. In this course we will seek
feedback at least at the end of the session.

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COURSE SCHEDULE

This timetable may be altered. Students will be advised of any changes in lectures and
via the course web site.
Note that both lectures and lab classes for this course start in Week 2 and end in
Week 13.
Week

Week
begining

25-Jul

1-Aug

Introduction; Actuaries and Predictive

Analytics techniques

1,2

8-Aug

Linear Regression techniques:

Simple/Multiple; K-Nearest Neighbors

15-Aug

Classification Methods: Logistic regression,

Discriminant Analysis

22-Aug

Resampling Methods: Cross Validation and

Bootstrap

29-Aug

5-Sep

Professional Ethics in Data Modelling

12-Sep

Linear Model Selection and Regularization:

Subsets, Shrinkage, and Dimension Reduction

19-Sep

Non-Linear methods: Polynomial Regression,

Splines, and Generalized Additive Models

Topic

Text
Reference

No lecture

Class Test

Mid Semester Break

10

3-Oct

Decision Trees: Bagging and Boosting

11

10-Oct

Support Vector Machines and Classification

12

17-Oct

13

24-Oct

Unsupervised Learning Methods: PCA and

Clustering (i)
Unsupervised Learning Methods: PCA and
Clustering (ii)

10
10

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