Use and Perceived Value of Class Forums

Numerous studies have illustrated the ability of online class discussion forums to support college-level student learning and performance. Yet few instructors incorporate forums into their courses. Many believe that students will fail to find value in or even use class forums or they are concerned about increasing their instructional workloads. Herein we address these concerns via a mixed-methods study of our own students\u27 experiences with class forums

Selection of Statistical Software for Solving Big Data Problems: A Guide for Businesses, Students, and Universities

The need for analysts with expertise in big data software is becoming more apparent in today’s society. Unfortunately, the demand for these analysts far exceeds the number available. A potential way to combat this shortage is to identify the software taught in colleges or universities. This article will examine four data analysis software—Excel add-ins, SPSS, SAS, and R—and we will outline the cost, training, and statistical methods/tests/uses for each of these software. It will further explain implications for universities and future students

A Project Based Approach to Statistics and Data Science

In an increasingly data-driven world, facility with statistics is more important than ever for our students. At institutions without a statistician, it often falls to the mathematics faculty to teach statistics courses. This paper presents a model that a mathematician asked to teach statistics can follow. This model entails connecting with faculty from numerous departments on campus to develop a list of topics, building a repository of real-world datasets from these faculty, and creating projects where students interface with these datasets to write lab reports aimed at consumers of statistics in other disciplines. The end result is students who are well prepared for interdisciplinary research, who are accustomed to coping with the idiosyncrasies of real data, and who have sharpened their technical writing and speaking skills

Selection of Statistical Software for Solving Big Data Problems for Teaching

The need for analysts with expertise in big data software is becoming more apparent in 4 today’s society. Unfortunately, the demand for these analysts far exceeds the number 5 available. A potential way to combat this shortage is to identify the software sought by 6 employers and to align this with the software taught by universities. This paper will 7 examine multiple data analysis software – Excel add-ins, SPSS, SAS, Minitab, and R – and 8 it will outline the cost, training, statistical methods/tests/uses, and specific uses within 9 industry for each of these software. It will further explain implications for universities and 10 students (PDF

Innovating Pedagogy 2015: Open University Innovation Report 4

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This fourth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. We proposed a long list of new educational terms, theories, and practices. We then pared these down to ten that have the potential to provoke major shifts in educational practice, particularly in post-school education. Lastly, we drew on published and unpublished writings to compile the ten sketches of new pedagogies that might transform education. These are summarised below in an approximate order of immediacy and timescale to widespread implementation