Engaging Students in Statistics The Franklin P. Perdue School of Business

The purpose of this Brown Bag Seminar: Fostering and maintaining students engagement in a Business Statistics Course is no easy matter….

We explain an approach we have begun using that has improved student engagement, enjoyment and performance.

Overview of the approach After reviewing the basic concepts of the introductory Statistics, students will be given a rough draft of a questionnaire. They will be asked to provide additional items to enhance the quality of the questionnaire.questionnaire

Overview of the approach (cont.) With inclusion of some of the items presented by students final version of the questionnaire will be generated. All students will be asked to fill out and hand in their completed questionnaire.

Overview of the approach (cont.) After students have completed and handed in the questionnaire, we will generate a data file (e.g., Excel data sheet). This data file will serve as the focus for statistical analysis for the majority of the semester—from descriptive statistics to complex regression analysis.data file

Our Teaching Model: We will present topics from the textbook and use the questionnaire data file for demonstrating the concepts and making assignments.

Assignment example 1: Identify a variable of your own from Excel datafile. Use a minimum of 25 observations and apply descriptive statistics module of Excel and interpret the printout.

Assignment example 2: Using Excel “Randbetween” function, generate random numbers between 1 and 102. Sort Height ( column 7 of questionnaire data file) according to the generated random numbers. Select height of 50 randomly selected students. Use 10 equally probable intervals and conduct a Chi Square test of goodness of fit to see if height is normally distributed

Research Project example: Are taller kids more intelligent? Tell us what you think. Students are expected gather classical views regarding the influence of height on intelligence (Short children have lower IQs?) Then, use the Excel Datafile and conduct an appropriate statistical analysis to validate or disprove the classical view.Short children have lower IQs

Conclusion After teaching Statistics for many years, we have found this approach heightens undergraduate students’ engagement. Higher student engagement leads to more enjoyment and higher level of performance.