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Captivating Students in the 21 st Century Using Online SPSS Simulations to Support Statistical Techniques Dr Andrew Clegg Principal Lecturer for Learning and Teaching Programme Co-ordinator for Tourism Management. Background: Statistics – ‘The Problem Child’.
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Captivating Students in the 21st Century Using Online SPSS Simulations to Support Statistical Techniques Dr Andrew Clegg Principal Lecturer for Learning and TeachingProgramme Co-ordinator for Tourism Management
Background: Statistics – ‘The Problem Child’
Background: GSCE Entry Profile – Business & Management • Sports Science undergraduates - 80% had GCSE grades C or B; 7% were either mature students or marks were not available, so only 13% of students had higher than GCSE B
Background: GSCE Entry Profile – Business & Management ‘How do I calculate a percentage?’
Background: GSCE Entry Profile – Business & Management ‘How do I calculate a percentage?’ ‘I hate Maths!’
Background: GSCE Entry Profile – Business & Management ‘How do I calculate a percentage?’ ‘I hate Maths!’ ‘How does this relate to my degree?’
Student Attitudes to Statistics • Zeidner (1990)* – Statistics Anxiety ‘a performance characterised by extensive worry, intrusive thoughts, mental disorganization, tension, and physiological arousal … when exposed to statistics content, problems, instructional situations, or evaluative contexts, and is commonly claimed to debilitate performance in a wide variety of academic situations by interfering with the manipulation of statistics data and solution of statistics problems’ [*cited in Onwuegbuzie and Wilson, 2003, p. 196]
Student Attitudes to Statistics • A scan of the available literature reveals a common and persistent theme: • High levels of anxiety... ‘for many students statistics is perhaps the most anxiety-provoking, difficult, or critical subject within their courses of study’ (Baharun & Porter, 2009) • ‘Statistics courses are viewed by most students as an obstacle standing in the way of attaining their desired degree’ (Perney and Ravid, 1991) • ‘While the material covered, the level of difficultly, and the approach vary enormously, most have one aspect in common: the course is typically the most unpopular in the academic programme’ (Keller et al, 1988)
Student Attitudes to Statistics • Maths anxiety is transferred to statistics anxiety (Perney & David, 1990) • Problems of contextualisation – where, why and how does it fit in? • Emergence of wider Research Methods Anxiety (Papanastasiou & Zembylas, 2008) • Coping strategy – failure is a foregone conclusion therefore accept low grade in a statistics module and recoup elsewhere – priority is a pass mark (40%)
Student Attitudes to Statistics • Cruise et al (1985): Components of Anxiety
Rationale: Simulations in Context
Rationale • The development of a blended learning approach to statistics to: • To reduce student anxiety and improve student understanding and confidence in the applied use of basic statistical techniques • To help students’ application of statistics through scenario-based exercises • To provide self-directed support for statistical analysis using SPSS and Access • To provide a quantitative foundation for additional research skills, and the formulation of Level 3 Management Projects/Dissertations
Captivate Features • Authoring tool designed to create software demonstrations, software simulations, branched scenarios, and randomized quiz files • Capability to build and edit interactive software demonstrations, recording in real time or using screen capture that snaps a sequence of still images and then builds mouse movement simulations to create the appearance of a running program • Capability to add captions, clickable hotspots, text entry boxes, rollovers, videos, etc
Example Simulation: Student T-Test
Student Feedback 2009-2010 74% of students made use of online simulations at some point during the module [n=62]
Student Feedback 2009-2010 [n=62]
Student Feedback 2009-2010 [n=62]