Hybrid Mathematics 140 Course (INTRODUCTORY STATISTICS) using Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative

Goals:   Create hybrid course that meets for half the time as the traditional four-unit Math 140 course and exploits the advantages of both in-class and online instruction. Develop course that addresses the principles for both content and effective pedagogy that have been established by modern statistical education research. Development greatly influenced by The American Statistical Association’s Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) Project.

Course description: Two 50 minute class periods per week. Course content delivered via the Internet through the Carnegie Mellon University’s Open Learning Initiative (OLI), an ADA compliant online statistics course. No course textbook. However, students use a 200 page Workbook we created. Students’ cost: $25 (but one can explore OLI for free).

OLI provides: thorough text and graphic presentation of the elementary statistics syllabus. Some information is provided via both visual and auditory channels. numerous practice problems with a great variety of assessments. immediate and tailored feedback. Class periods spent answering questions on the OLI reading assignments, administering quizzes on these readings, hands-on statistical activities, and exams. Very little lecturing.

Extensive set of assessments, both formative and summative: In-class quizzes, three midterms, final exam Regular graded homework Term Project: Group projects, completed in stages (each stage graded and returned with comments and suggestions) OLI self assessments: Did I Get This? Learn by Doing Stat Tutor (student works through all phases of statistical problems) Six online quizzes My Response (student writes a response to one or more questions, incl. ones the student would like the instructor to address in class). { scaffolded

Evaluation: CAOS (Comprehensive Assessment of Outcomes in a First Statistics course), a nationally used NSF funded exam developed by statistical educators, was administered in the initial semester of the hybrid course. CAOS goal: “Help teachers assess statistical literacy, statistical reasoning, and statistical thinking in first courses in statistics.”   Greater performance gains (posttest-pretest) in the two hybrid sections than in each of the three regular sections used for comparison. Passage rates have generally been higher than in regular sections.