Webinars

In this talk, we will discuss why causal inference concepts align well with recommendations for introductory statistics courses and propose topics appropriate for such courses. In addition, we will highlight some resources for instructors interested in teaching causal inference, including a classroom activity we developed based on a popular dataset investigating the effects of youth smoking on lung function.

Rich visualizations of data not only helps the analyst with exploring hidden features in data, but is an essential tool in presenting and communicating results bringing the data to life. In this webinar, the presenter will show how the JMP Statistical Discovery Software is an excellent tool to use in the classroom to help students incorporate visualization into their analyses.Sponsored by JMP Academic Programs

This work introduces new assessment tools to measure learning outcomes of students in undergraduate statistics programs (e.g. majors) against the competencies recommended in the (2014) ASA Guidelines for Undergraduate Programs in Statistical Sciences. In short, these assessment tools seek to (1) measure student learning outcomes with respect to program objectives; (2) discover whether students are gaining additional relevant competencies not explicitly included in the program/major through extracurricular experiences; (3) facilitate comparisons across years and institutions to benefit continuous improvement of the program/major. This webinar presents uses and results after piloting with Senior/Capstone undergraduate statistics students shortly before graduation at four different institutions around the US.

In this webinar, I will discuss findings from a qualitative study that was conducted based on written work and task-based interviews of students completing a second course in statistics. In particular, I will focus on three major topics: The methodology used for analyzing our qualitative data, Beginning to define the relationship that was observed between a student’s ability to think statistically while utilizing statistical computing tools and Observations about how students solve problems while utilizing statistical computing tools.

As statistics and data science become more important and prominent in secondary schools, we need more teachers ready to teach statistics in data-rich ways. Enhancing Statistics Teacher Education through E-Modules [ESTEEM] is an NSF-funded project to develop and disseminate research-based online learning materials to be used in teacher education courses (http://hirise.fi.ncsu.edu/projects/esteem). In this webinar, participants will be introduced to our online materials, including videos of students and teachers engaged in rich statistics tasks, interviews with experts educators, and investigations with a free online tool CODAP. Different implementation models used and evaluation results will be shared. Participants will learn how to register for free access to materials and download all materials in common Learning Management System formats (Moodle, Canvas, Blackboard) that are ready for upload into their own courses.

At Middle TN State University (MTSU), the introductory statistics class is taught by a diverse set of instructors. The ideal teacher for this course would be both statistically trained and experienced in the classroom. However, we often have people who are experienced teachers, but not statistically trained, like instructors with a Master’s in mathematics. Or statistically trained, but not experienced teachers, like graduate students in our Biostatistics program. When we decided to change the teaching method of this class to focus on more active-learning and less lecture-based classes, we had to consider the various types of instructors, and reasons they might feel uncomfortable with this change. We formed a course community in which all the instructors of this course were invited to meet approximately every two weeks during the semester before the change and the semester in which the change happened. This webinar will discuss how the course community functioned and the effects that it had on the teaching of this course.

Flipped classrooms have appeared in all levels of education. One of the major benefits is that the passive learning (lecture) is completed at home and the active learning (activities and problem solving) are done in class with the instructor. However, the issues with flipped classrooms are the cost to make high quality video content and the time. Due to the cost and time many classes are created and then not updated. This talk will discuss common ways for creating and updating flipped classrooms, considering a case study of PHP 2560: Statistical Programming in R at Brown University. We will discuss the first flipped version of this course, in terms of content and creation time. Then we will discuss how subsequent iterations have been adapted and updated to maintain relevance.

eStat, www.estat.me, is a free, web-based, dynamic graphical software developed by my team which can do not only data processing as other statistical packages, but also simulation experiments for teaching statistics. The eStat covers data visualization, parametric tests, nonparametric tests, analysis of variance and regression with statistical distributions such as Binomial, Normal, t, ChiSquare, F, Wilcoxon distribution etc. An introductory statistics book for mobile teaching which utilizes QR codes of the eStat is developed and it has been used successfully for introductory statistics classes at many universities in Korea.

We recently initiated the Statistical Thinking in Undergraduate Biology (STUB) network to facilitate interdisciplinary conversations between statistics and biology educators. A key focus of the network is how to better communicate across disciplines about course goals, identify synergies and create on-campus conversations with biologists teaching statistical content in their courses. In this webinar, we’ll share our experiences from the first workshops, assessment activities and curriculum development activities of the network and give some reflections on best practices, opportunities, and next steps.

Classroom Stats is an integrated mobile and web-based data collection and analysis platform. Instructors can quickly send out questions (quantitative and categorical) through the web application that students can answer on their mobile devices and see the results analyzed in real time. Classroom Stats makes teaching and learning statistics fun and interactive as it seamlessly integrates students’ data into the classroom. Visit: http://www.classroomstats.com