By Catherine Case (University of Georgia)
Information
When we think about students learning to communicate with data, we may picture an “ideal” classroom environment where students meet in person in small sections and receive individualized feedback from the instructor. However, the reality is that many undergraduate statistics classes meet online or in large sections and have little/no TA support for grading. In these environments, instructors can leverage educational technology to facilitate three key types of communication: (1) Students work in groups and practice communication with data; (2) Students share their developing understanding with the instructor through formative assessment; and (3) The instructor provides constructive feedback that addresses both conceptual understanding and precision of communication. We will demonstrate an online course that uses technology in all three of these ways – specifically using Zoom breakout rooms with shared screens to facilitate collaborative data analysis, Socrative to monitor and evaluate student progress in real time, and Google Docs to provide feedback and record discussion. We will also suggest alternative tools to support the three types of communication and invite participants to crowdsource a list of effective tools and strategies.