Examining Flipped Classrooms in Statistical Literacy Instruction during the Pandemic: Results from a Quasi-experimental Study with Multiple Instructors

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Farmus et al. (2020) noted that the flipped classroom (FC) has become the “trendiest pedagogical approach in post-secondary educational research”. Their meta-analysis of FCs in introductory statistics courses demonstrates some evidence of positive impact on end-of-semester performance. Building on this work, we present results of a grant-funded multiple semester quasi-experimental study comparing the FC sections versus to traditional lecture sections in a statistical literacy course for non-mathematics majors during the COVID-19 pandemic, where section sizes ranged from 35 to 75. The unique contributions include (1) the use of three instructors, each teaching one FC section and a traditional section and (2) a mix of delivery formats (one semester as remote synchronous instruction; one semester as in-person, but socially distanced instruction). Initial results indicate no difference in the Comprehensive Assessment of Outcomes in a First Statistics course (CAOS) scores during either semester. During the in-person semester, there was a very weak effect in favor of the FC sections for the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS-36) value and interest scores. During the live poster session, participants can discuss topics including the FC design, the research study design, and challenges to offering FCs during the pandemic.