Drawing from web-based materials previously developed to supplement on-campus sections of an introductory statistics course for graduate students in education, the author started offering an on-line virtual class in the fall of 2001. The course, designed for doctoral students already participating in a program making extensive use of web-based materials, relied on students working independently with the on-line material (that included course lectures and notes) supported by access to the instructor using e-mail and the telephone. End of course performance was lower and much more variable than had been expected. Many students expressed the need for much more organization and contact with the instructor. Comparisons are made with reports of more successful virtual courses suggesting the need for a much greater degree of instructor supplied organization and direction.
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