The purpose of this study was twofold. First, the purpose was to design a web based graduate level statistics course for MBA students and to analyze the attitudes of the online students toward the course. The second purpose was to compare the students taking the course online versus the students taking the course in a traditional classroom setting. Achievement along with three mediating variables was investigated. The three mediating variables included: prior computer experience, prior math knowledge and experience and attitude toward the subject of statistics. The participants were forty-two graduate students in their first year of the MBA program, thirteen students took the class online, twenty-nine attended a traditional class. Students' attitudes toward learning in an online environment overall were favorable. Differences were found in the attitude toward the subject of statistics and prior computer experience; however, no casual relationship between class and achievement was detected. Students who learned in an online environment achieved comparably to students learning in a traditional classroom. The online course developed for this research can be used as an educationally equivalent managerial statistics course taught in a traditional classroom setting.
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