Investigating the use and usefulness of instant messaging in an elementary statistics course.


Book: 
Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference On Teaching Statistics (ICOTS-7), Salvador, Brazil.
Authors: 
Cunliffe, R.
Editors: 
Rossman, A., & Chance, B.
Category: 
Year: 
2006
Publisher: 
Voorburg, The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute.
URL: 
http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications/17/6E4_CUNL.pdf
Abstract: 

Instant messaging is a way of sending short messages to other users who are currently online in "real time" and is a rapidly growing medium by which many students are choosing to communicate with each other. A pilot study into the use of instant messaging was carried out with two large elementary statistics classes. This study will report back on the virtual office-hours service, advantages and disadvantages of online study groups and reflections on how instant messaging could change help-support services for students studying statistics.

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