By Vimal Rao, University of Minnesota
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George Washington University’s HSCI 2117 Introduction to Statistics for the Health Sciences, a traditional distance-based 8-week first course in statistics, aims for students to “apply statistical concepts to health sciences scenarios.” Applying theories of scaffolded distributed practice and recommendations from GAISE 2016, I developed a series of six homework assignments and one activity based on a single dataset from a research article for the Spring 2019 term. The continuity in using the same study and dataset for all assignments throughout the term seems to have led students to increased mastery of statistical tools, increased consistency in the practice of statistical thinking on homework assignments, and improved statistical literacy demonstrated by performance in an activity requiring them to evaluate a published research article’s use of descriptive tools and hypothesis tests. The poster will highlight the developed assignments’ continuity and showcase preliminary results of improvements in student performance.