“Dear Fresher …” – How Online Questionnaires can Improve Learning and Teaching Statistics

Abstract

Lecturers teaching statistics are faced with several challenges supporting students' learning in appropriate ways. A variety of methods and tools exist to facilitate students' learning on statistics courses. The online questionnaires presented in this report are a new, slightly different computer-based tool: the central aim was to support students to master the course content and to provide the lecturer with continuous feedback about the students' difficulties and deficits. The aims of online questionnaires supporting teaching and learning of statistics are compared to aims of other computer-based and non-computerized methods and tools. Additionally, data from a first evaluation of the questionnaires is presented. In a first year psychology student's statistics course (bachelor program), students were offered the possibility of filling in an online questionnaire every time a specific theme had been taught. Out of the 126 first year students there were 28 who answered the online questionnaires regularly and 12 answered them sometimes. Those who answered the online questionnaires assessed them as helpful for their understanding of the course's content. The lecturer judged the online questionnaires as particular helpful for improving teaching and assessing performance deficits.

Developing a Drawing Task to Differentiate Group Average Time Course vs. Dynamics in the Individual

“…From a practical point of view, web simulations in education (see Mills, 2002, for examples in teaching statistics) have turned out to be both economic and generally well understood by students. While online courses (Stiegler-Balfour, 2015) and learning questionnaires (e.g., Bebermeier, Nussbeck, & Ontrup, 2015) are already common in statistic and psychology teaching, future applications of a learning curve tool might involve mobile apps (Diliberto-Macaluso & Hughes, 2016), student response systems in the classroom (Watling, Clarke, & Rowell, 2014), or collaborative online-tasks, for example, on tablets (Spitzer & Ebner, 2015). An interactive collaborative app could visualize how the single, possibly jagged curves drawn or sampled by different people blend together in a smooth averaged learning curve.…”

Métodos y proyectos transdigitales

“…(Contains 1 table. ; los cuestionarios en línea ayudaron a los estudiantes a dominar el contenido del curso al promover la autorreflexión sobre sus capacidades, carencias y adquisición de conocimientos (Bebermeier et al, 2015).…”

Lernmodule zu Themenbereichen der Vorlesung Statistik I und II im Studiengang Psychologie der Universität Bielefeld

“…Im Bereich der studienbegleitenden Maßnahmen wurden unter anderem sogenannte Lernmodule (kommentierte folienbasierte Adobe Presenter Präsentationen) zu grundlegenden und/oder prüfungsrelevanten Inhalten der Vorlesung erstellt, die von den Studierenden als schwierig oder schwer verständlich beurteilt wurden. Ein Online-Fragebogen, den die Studierenden jeweils nach Abschluss eines Themas der Vorlesung beantworteten, gab Aufschluss über die Verständnisschwierigkeiten (Bebermeier et al, 2015). Ziel der Lernmodule war es, durch Wiederholung und Erläuterung der (mathematischen) Inhalte sowie durch anschauliche Praxisbeispiele grundlegende fachspezifische Kompetenzen zu vermitteln und Studierenden so zu helfen, ihre Defizite aufzuarbeiten und den Anschluss an die Vorlesung nicht zu verlieren.…”