Mark-
Thanks for your email. Here's what we're doing here at Dordt---but I, too,
would love to hear more.
1. We have two intro courses. The AP stat equivalent which uses the ISI
book you are using and another 'accelerated' intro stats which does the ISI
book in half a semester and then does a half semester of multivariable
applied statistics.
2. Our placement criteria for the second course is (a) taken calculus (even
though we don't use any), or (b) prior experience with statistics (e.g., AP
statistics or some other college or HS course)
3. We do have some students take the 'easier' intro course instead of the
longer one, but not that many so it's not an issue. When we get overbooked
in the regular intro course these better students are the first to go... :)
Again, curious what others are doing as well.
Nathan
On Fri, Dec 4, 2015 at 2:55 PM, Mark Mills <MillsM(a)central.edu> wrote:
Statistics education colleagues,
We currently have two introductory stats courses here at Central College.
- Applied Statistics (MATH 215) is intended for more mathematically/
technically mature/advanced students. We use Rossman and Chance's
ISCAM book, and students learn how to use Minitab to do statistical tests
and intervals.
- Intro to Statistics (MATH 105) is intended for students who are not
as sophisticated mathematically/technically. We use Tintle's *Introduction
to Statistical Investiations* book, and students use the accompanying
applets to do much of the work for them.
We are struggling with finding an effective prerequisite to use to put
students in these two courses. Does anyone have ideas?
The biggest difference between the two courses is how fast and how deep we
can go with the material. In Applied Stats, we go faster and make some
deeper connections with the material. We also expect that students can
fill in some of the gaps as we go along. But in Intro to Stats, we go
slower and spend more time filling in gaps and making connections for the
students.
We are struggling with finding an effective prerequisite to use to put
students in these two courses. In particular, we'd like to have an
enforceable prerequisite for each course that would keep good students from
just taking the easy road with Intro to Stats. Does anyone have ideas?
Currently, we simply use math placement results to decide this. Students
placing at or above Calc I or having completed (at least) Precalculus are
not eligible to enroll in MATH 105. However, as strange as this seems, our
current registration system cannot check/enforce this prereq, so any
student can actually enroll in either course. So we end up having to
police these criteria ourselves--usually removing students from Intro to
Stats and encouraging them to enroll in Applied Stats. (Not a happy job...)
Lately, we have begun to wonder if using a math placement result that is
based on a scale from College Algebra to Multivariable Calculus is really
the best way to measure what will make a student successful in a particular
stats class.
We have done some analysis of a number of different possible predictors of
student success, and the one that seemed to be the strongest was cumulative
GPA. A GPA of 2.7 seemed to be the low end for students who successfully
completed Applied Stats. So we proposed a pre-req of GPA <= 2.7 for Intro
to Stats and GPA >= 2.7 for Applied Stats, but our Registrar doesn't like
it and has asked us to consider a different pre-req.
We've talked a lot about this as a department, and we really don't know
where to go.
If anyone out there with a similar situation of having two intro courses
has an easy, effective, and enforceable way to determine student placement,
then I would enjoy hearing from you. Please just reply directly to me and
not to the SBI mailing list.
Thanks!
Mark
*Dr. MARK A.** MILLS*
Professor of Mathematics | Central College
812 University Street | Campus Box 06 | Pella, Iowa 50219
--
Nathan Tintle, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Statistics and Dept. Chair
Director for Research and Scholarship
Dordt College
Sioux Center, IA 51250
nathan.tintle(a)dordt.edu
Phone: (712) 722-6264
Office: SB1612