General Rules

March 11, 2008 Teaching and Learning webinar presented by Deborah Nolan, University of California at Berkeley and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. Computing is an increasingly important element of statistical practice and research. It is an essential tool in our daily work, it shapes the way we think about statistics, and broadens our concept of statistical science. Although many agree that there should be more computing in the statistics curriculum and that statistics students need to be more computationally capable and literate, it can be difficult to determine how the curriculum should change because computing has many dimensions. In this webinar Dr. Nolan explores alternatives to teaching statistics that include innovations in data technologies, modern statistical methods, and a variety of computing skills that will enable our students to become active and engaged participants in scientific discovery.

May 13, 2008 Teaching and Learning webinar presented by Joy Jordan, Lawrence University and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. Writing can be an effective instrument for students learning new concepts, and there is a plethora of writing-to-learn research. This Webinar summarizes important findings from the writing literature, as well as providing specific writing-assignment examples for the introductory statistics classroom.

July 8, 2008 Teaching and Learning webinar presented by Shonda Kuiper, Grinnell College and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. Many instructors use projects to ensure that students experience the challenge of synthesizing key elements learned throughout a course. However, students can often have difficulty adjusting from traditional homework to a true research project that requires searching the literature, transitioning from a research question to a statistical model, preparing a proposal for analysis, collecting data, determine an appropriate technique for analysis, and presenting the results. This webinar presents multi-day lab modules that bridge the gap between smaller, focused textbook problems to large projects that help students experience the role of a research scientist. These labs can be combined to form a second statistics course, individually incorporated into an introductory statistics course, used to form the basis of an individual research project, or used to help students and researchers in other disciplines better understand how statisticians approach data analysis.

September 9, 2008 Teaching and Learning webinar presented by Joan Garfield and Michelle Everson, University of Minnesota and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. This webinar discusses issues and challenges in preparing teachers of statistics at the secondary and college level. It then provides a case study of a graduate level course taught at the University of Minnesota that focuses on developing excellent teachers of statistics. The course is based on the GAISE guidelines and helps the students develop both knowledge of teaching (pedagogical knowledge) and specific knowledge about teaching statistics (pedagogical content knowledge). Topics, readings, activities, assessments, and discussions are described. In addition, the webinar discusses how the course was transformed from a face-to-face setting to an online environment.