Teaching Statistics Online CAUSEweb Webinar December 12, 2006

1. Teaching Statistics OnlineCAUSEweb WebinarDecember 12, 2006 Michelle Everson University of Minnesota

2. Overview • About the course • Structure of the course website • Description of student assignments and assessments • What do students think about the course? • Things for the online instructor to consider • Some lessons learned

3. The GAISE Recommendations • According to the GAISE (2005) recommendations, introductory statistics courses at the college level should: • Emphasize statistical literacy and develop statistical thinking • Use real data • Stress conceptual understanding • Foster active learning • Use technology • Integrate assessments that are aligned with course goals

4. Research on Teaching Statistics Online • How can collaborative activities and technology can be integrated into an online statistics course? • Student-to-student interaction and collaboration • Weekly chats(e.g., Dereshiwsky, 1998) • Project work(e.g., Davis & Chao, 2004; Prater & MacNeil, 2002; Suanpang, Petocz, & Kalceff, 2004) • Regular group discussions(e.g., Grandzol, 2004; Jones, 2003) • Technology • Courses have used Excel, SPSS, Minitab, Cyberstats, and ActivStats(e.g., Davis & Chao, 2004; Dutton & Dutton, 2005; Grandzol, 2004; Harrington, 1999; Lawrence & Singhania, 2004; Mills & Xu, 2005; Prater & MacNeil, 2002; Utts et al., 2003; Zhang, 2004)

5. EPSY 3264: Basic and Applied Statistics • This is a 3-credit, semester-long, upper-level undergraduate course • Students who take the course come from all over campus; most take the course to fulfill a general education requirement • The course covers the following topics: data collection and description, normal distributions, sampling distributions, methods of statistical estimation and inference, correlation, and simple linear regression • The course uses the textbook Mind on Statistics (3rd ed., by Utts & Heckard), bundled with Minitab

16. Course Assignments • Grades are based on: • Small-group Discussion Assignments (7) • Homework Assignments (8) • Quizzes (4) • Project (1) • Students also have the opportunity to complete non-graded practice activities and extra credit assignments

17. More on Grades

18. Collaborative Group Assignments • Each student is assigned to a discussion group at the beginning of the semester • Seven small-group discussion assignments are completed • Assignments involve discussing concepts and answering questions as a group • Students must post their own thoughts (by midnight on Wednesday) AND respond in a meaningful way to what at least one group member has posted • One student volunteers to lead each discussion and submit a summary to the instructor by midnight on Monday • Grading: 3 points for initial posting, 3 points for responding, 1 point if group summary is submitted on time

19. Group Assignment #1: Designing an experiment • Students read a 1998 New York Times article about a Therapeutic Touch experiment conducted by 11-year-old Emily Rosa • Students spend some time critiquing the study (i.e., discussing sampling issues, possible confounding variables, etc.) • Students then design a new experiment in order to assess the efficacy of the Therapeutic Touch method

20. Group Assignment #4: Sampling Distributions • Students work independently through a lab in which they use the Sampling SIM program (delMas, 2001) • Students then attempt to answer a series of questions about the lab as a group: • They talk about what they feel a sampling distribution is and why it is important. • They talk about why they think the sampling distribution has the characteristics that it does. • They work as a group to answer a question that involves applying knowledge of sampling distributions.

21. Group Assignment #6: Hypotheses tests • Each student posts a research question that he/she is interested in and that can be addressed using either a one-sample, two-sample, or paired t-test procedure • Students talk about: • Why they are interested in this question • What their null and alternative hypotheses will be • What procedure is most appropriate to use and why • After students have posted their own research question, they each must choose one other research question to critique

22. More on Homework Assignments • Students complete 8 homework assignments, each worth 10 points • Assignments involve answering instructor-generated questions • Most assignments involve using Minitab or other technology (e.g., Java applets) • For some assignments, student data is analyzed (i.e., data from a class survey that students fill out during Week 1 of the course) • Assignments are submitted as Word attachments through WebCT e-mail • The TA grades each assignment and sends individual feedback to the student within one week

23. More on the Project • Each student completes a project that involves gathering data from two groups and describing/analyzing the data using Minitab • The project is submitted in parts: • Part 1: Project idea • Part 2: Project data • Part 3: Introduction and description of data • Part 4: Inference (confidence intervals and hypothesis testing) and summary/conclusion

24. Quizzes • Every four weeks (25 points each) • Quizzes are administered online through the WebCT quiz tool • Available from noon on Fridays until noon on Mondays • Students have up to three hours to complete the quiz (in one sitting) • Quizzes consist almost entirely of short-answer questions • The BIG question: How do you administer quizzes online and ensure that students are not cheating? Can you do this????

25. Trying to Prevent Cheating • If all of your quizzes will be online (like they are in this course), you can do different things to prevent cheating • Change assessments from semester to semester • Insist that students complete the quiz in one sitting, within a certain period of time • Use open-ended questions where students must explain their answers • You can also randomize the order in which questions are presented to each student • Ask that students adhere to an “honor code” of some kind

26. Student Feedback (Spring and Fall, 2006) • Students are asked to complete a Midterm Feedback Survey during Week 9 and indicate how they feel different assignments are contributing to their understanding of statistics

27. Teaching Online: Issues to Consider • What kind of support will you get in developing the course? How much autonomy do you want to have? • How large will your class be? Will you get some TA support? • How will you ensure that students know what is expected of them in the online course? • What do you want YOUR role in the course to be? • Are you willing to be online often? • Are you comfortable providing feedback or explaining concepts to students via e-mail? • If you use discussion groups, will you participate in group discussions?

28. Some Lessons Learned • Teaching online can be a big time commitment • Online courses are NOT for everyone! • You get to know your students in a much different way when teaching online • Students appreciate timely communication with the instructor/TA, organization, and consistent deadlines • Online discussion assignments can be a great way to learn more about student difficulties/misconceptions • They motivate ALL students to participate • Discussions can be monitored for ALL GROUPS from start to finish • Set deadlines discourage students from waiting until the last minute to participate

29. Thank you!!!! Contact information: Dr. Michelle Everson Department of Educational Psychology University of Minnesota gaddy001@umn.edu