Resource Library

November 14, 2006 webinar presented by Chrstine Franklin, University of Georgia, and Jessica Utts, University of California and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. In 2005 the American Statistical Association endorsed the recommendations of a report written by leading statistics educators, called "Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education" (GAISE). The report had two parts - one for K-12 and one for the college introductory statistics course. In this webinar, two members of the report-writing team review the recommendations in the report, and provide suggestions for how to begin to implement them.

October 10, 2006 webinar presented By John Holcomb, Cleveland State University, and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. This webinar presents a quick overview of assessment methods related to student writing assignments and data analysis projects. Beginning with short writing assignments, Dr. Holcomb progresses through a range of different approaches to projects at the introductory course level. On-line resources containing existing project ideas will be shown along with ideas for creating one's own projects. The webinar also discusses several approaches to evaluating the range of assignments.

Webinar presented September 12, 2006 by Brian Jersky, St. Mary's College, and Robert Gould, UCLA, and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. This webinar discusses resources available to educators to assist them in crafting lesson plans that meet the GAISE. The presenters briefly explain the GAISE, which were endorsed by the American Statistical Association and also the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and demonstrate various resources offered through CAUSEweb and other channels.

February 13, 2007 webinar presented by Jim Albert, Bowling Green State University, and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. An introductory statistics course is described that is entirely taught from a baseball perspective. This class has been taught as a special section of the basic introductory course offered at Bowling Green State University . Topics in data analysis are communicated using current and historical baseball datasets. Probability is introduced by describing and playing tabletop baseball games. Inference is taught by distinguishing between a player's "ability" and his "performance", and then describing how one can learn about a player's ability based on his season performance. Baseball issues such as the proper interpretation of situational and "streaky" data are used to illustrate statistical inference.

January 9, 2007 webinar presented by Sterling Hilton, Brigham Young University, and hosted by Jackie Miler, The Ohio State University. Beginning in January 2005, the ASA (with support from the National Science Foundation) started a series of three workshops for statisticians and mathematics education researchers. The purpose of these workshops was to make recommendations on ways to promote high-quality education research that can stand up under the scrutiny of other scientific communities and that will allow work to be compared and combined across research programs. A draft version of the final report from these workshops entitled "Using Statistics Effectively in Mathematics Education Research" has been written. This webinar summarizes the major points of this report and discuss their relevance to researchers in statistics education.

December 12, 2006 webinar presented by Michelle Everson, University of Minnesota, and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. This webinar focuses on describing an introductory statistics course that is taught completely online. The structure of this course is described, and samples of different student assignments and activities are presented. Assessment data and student feedback about the course are also presented. Discussion focuses on issues that must be considered when developing and administering an online course, such as the instructor's role in the online course and ways to create an active learning environment in an online course.

March 13, 2007 webinar presented by Andrew Zieffler, University of Minnesota, and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. The interdisciplinary field of inquiry that is statistics education research spans a diverse set of disciplines and methodologies. A recent review of a subset of this literature, the research on teaching and learning statistics at the college level, was used to raise some practical issues and pose some challenges to the field of statistics education. These are addressed in this CAUSE webinar. In addition, a recent doctoral dissertation study is used to illustrate some of these challenges and offer suggestions for how to deal with them.

In this 20 minute video, doctor and researcher Hans Rosling uses his fascinating data-bubble software to burst myths about the developing world. The video includes new analysis on China and the post-bailout world, mixed with classic data shows.

In this short 3 minute video, mathematician and magician Arthur Benjamin offers a bold proposal on how to make math education relevant in the digital age.

Many introductory Statistics courses consist of two main components: lecture sections and computer laboratory sections. In the computer labs, students often review fundamental course concepts, learn to analyze data using statistical software, and practice applying their knowledge to real world scenarios. Lab time could be better utilized if students arrived with 1) prior exposure to the core statistical ideas, and 2) a basic familiarity with the statistical software package. To achieve these objectives, PreLabs have been integrated into an introductory statistics course. A simple screen capture software (Jing) was used to create videos. The videos and a very short corresponding assignment together form a PreLab and are made available to students to access at appropriate times in the course. Some PreLabs were created to expose the students to statistical software details. Other PreLabs incorporate an available online learning resource or applet which allows students to gain a deeper understanding of a course concept through simulation and visualization. Not all on-line learning resources are ready to use 'as in' in a course. Some may be lacking a preface or description on how they are to be used; others may use slightly different notation or language than your students are accustomed to; a few may even contain an error or item that needs some clarification. One solution to such difficulties was to create a video wrapper so students can see how the applet works while receiving guidance from the instructor. In this webinar we will share the success story of how one introductory Statistics course integrated these video wrappers into the course and the discuss other possible applications.