In fulfilling their brief to build a digital university the Centre for IT in Higher Education (ITEd), presents academic modules in Digital Media to staff and students from technologically under-resourced backgrounds who have had limited opportunities for acquiring practical IT skills. In a core module on Research Data Analysis Theory and Tools, a component on Computer-based Quantitative Data Analysis develops competency in advanced software tools to assist implementation of research projects. A challenge of this course has been to build confidence in learners with limited statistical and quantitative backgrounds, who articulate anxiety and phobia about work of this nature. This paper reports on the design, implementation, assessment and outcomes of a predominantly Internet and web-based course that used the metaphor of a Big Bother/Survivor Challenge process to prepare largely 'quantophobic' post-graduate students and staff to conduct sound quantitative data analysis in research projects while reducing 'quantophobia' and building confidence. Initial results suggest that the use of the metaphor, together with other design features of the course, contributed to reduced 'quantophobia' and increased confidence with quantitative work.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education