An On-Line Toolkit for Teaching Statistics to Bioscience Students

1. An On-Line Toolkit for Teaching Statistics to Bioscience Students Dr Richard Cook School of Life Sciences Kingston University London Project funded by an HEA Teaching Development Grant GENTDG147

2. The Problem • Bioscience students don’t like statistics! • Statistics is an essential skill for bioscientists! • Often large numbers – statistics taught as ‘separate subject’ • RELEVANCE?

3. The Problem • Even if taught statistics, students often forget later when they need to use it (project!) • When they have their own data, difficult to decide which statistical tests to use

4. My Solution! • Guide to select appropriate statistical tests • Web-based with videos for SPSS • Lots of subject-relevant examples • Flexible, interactive learning and revision aid – encourage independent learning & practice • On-line software: • Keep control: update & develop easily • Xerte Toolkit: University of Nottingham Flexible on-line template for interactive, web-based teaching materials

5. AIMS • Teach biostatistics as a tool – keep it simple • ‘Decision tree’ guide: • Help understand context of each test • Help decide which test to use • Use of animated videos - how to use SPSS and understand output • Subject-relevant example data with MCQs • Relevance • Practice

6. Intended Purpose • A teaching resource to support lectures and learning NOT a replacement for lectures/books • A revision aid: A resource for students to re-visit when they need it

7. Availability • Available as an Open Educational Resource • Address: http://www.oercommons.org/authoring/5089-biostatistics-toolkit • Creative Commons License: Allows sharing: can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

8. The Biostatistics Toolkit • Introduction shows (videos): • the SPSS environment • entering data and getting output (results) in SPSS • obtaining descriptive (summary statistics) • Rest of Toolkit is based on simple questions and decision tree to lead to correct test

9. First Questions: 1.Type of Data

10. First Questions: 2.Type of question

11. The Decision Tree

12. Decision Tree: next step

13. Video for each test A video for every test shows how to do this in SPSS and what the output means

14. Sample data sets for each test

15. Use at Kingston University London (Level 5) • Aim to encourage independent & student-led learning • Brief 1-hour lecture each week to introduce background & purpose of selected tests; given problems to solve • Use Toolkit to select test and watch video to solve problem in SPSS – can do any time • Computer workshops for help with problems • Apply statistics to numerical data from lab classes on any module (integration of statistics to subject) • Revision – use example data from Toolkit

16. Initial Conclusions & Feedback from Students (n=56) • Don’t expect all students to be able to watch a video and apply it to a problem! • Some resistance to independent learning – still want contact and instruction • Many students need further help to develop confidence • Still an inherent resistance by many students to statistics • Nevertheless, intitial feedback indicates the Toolkit is helpful

17. Was the toolkit useful in explaining how to carry out a statistical test in SPSS? Almost 90 % found it Quite/Very Useful

18. Does the toolkit improve your confidence in using statistics to analyse data? 100% said it developed confidence – at least a little!

19. Will you use the toolkit to carry out statistical analyses in SPSS in future (eg final year project)? 96% said Yes/Possibly

20. Further Conclusions • Lack of confidence: students need encouragement & support • Help needed to interpret results of statistics in relation to the biological context • Overall, toolkit well accepted by the students • Anticipate that benefit will become more apparent to students during final year Thank you for listening!