Resource Library

April 10, 2007 webinar presented by Maria C. Pruchnicki, The Ohio State University, and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. Distance education and online learning opportunities, collectively known as "e-learning", are becoming increasingly used in higher education. Nationally, online enrollment increased to 3.2 million students in 2005, compared to 2.3 million in 2004. Furthermore, nearly 60% of higher education institutions identify e-learning as part of their long-term education strategy. Newer educational technologies including course management systems and Internet-based conferencing software can be used to both deliver content and engage participants as part of a social learning community. However, even experienced faculty can face pedagogical and operational challenges as they transition to the online environment. This interactive presentation discusses a systematic approach to developing web-based instruction, with an Ohio State University experience as a case example.

July 10, 2007 Teaching & Learning Webinar presented by Larry Lesser, University of Texas at El Paso, and hosted by Jackie Miler, The Ohio State University. Drawing from (and expanding upon) his article in the March 2007 Journal of Statistics Education, Larry Lesser discusses and invite discussion about examples, resources and pedagogy associated with this meaningful way of engaging students in the statistics classroom.

January 8, 2008 Teaching and Learning webinar presented by Dennis Pearl, The Ohio State University and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. This presentation describes the "Buffet" method for teaching multi-section courses. In this method, students are offered a choice of content delivery strategies designed to match different individual learning styles. The choice is exercised through an on-line "contract" entered into by students at the beginning of the term. The webinar describes the Ohio State experiences with the buffet strategy and discusses how key elements of the strategy can also be adapted to smaller classes to improve student learning.

June 10, 2008 Teaching and Learning webinar presented by Robert delMas, University of Minnesota and Marsha Lovett, Carnegie Mellon University and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. There is a large body of research on the mechanisms underlying student learning. This webinar explores four principles distilled from this research - the role of prior knowledge, how students organize knowledge, meaningful engagement, and goal-directed practice and feedback - and illustrate their application in the teaching of statistics. A more detailed example is given to show how these principles can be integrated to develop and support our students' conceptual understanding.

Webinar presented by Roger Woodard of North Carolina State University and Ginger Rowell of Middle Tennessee State University and hosted by Jackie Miller of The Ohio State University on June 13, 2006. Many people would like to use online resources in their classrooms. However, the typical online applet does not have supporting materials that allow the teacher to introduce them into the classroom. Instructors that simply point students to a website without specific instructions and planning may find that the students do not achieve the desired learning outcomes from using the applet. In this webinar Dr. Woodard presented a basic framework that instructors can use to plan and implement the use of online materials in the classroom. These are illustrated with examples that have been field tested in courses at NCSU and at MTSU.

The Numbers Guy examines numbers in the news, business and politics. Some numbers are flat-out wrong or biased, while others are valid and help us make informed decisions. Carl Bialik tells the stories behind the stats, in daily updates on this blog and in his column published every other Friday in The Wall Street Journal.

This website is a resource of teaching methods and approaches that instructors at all levels of statistics education can use to generate student interest in pursuing more study or a career in the field of statistics.

Using cooperative learning methods, this activity helps students develop a better intuitive understanding of what is meant by variability in statistics. Emphasis is placed on the standard deviation as a measure of variability. This lesson also helps students to discover that the standard deviation is a measure of the density of values about the mean of a distribution. As such, students become more aware of how clusters, gaps, and extreme values affect the standard deviation.

This case study discussess methods to successfully adapt graduate-level statistics courses for the online environment. Using small-group discussion assignments is not only a great way to create an interactive learning community; it also provides instructors with valuable information about students' reasoning.

The following exercise can illustrate the problem of bias in estimators to students in statistics courses. In some advanced courses an alternative estimator may be presented and properties of this estimator may be investigated via Monte Carlo studies.