Instructional strategies and course design for teaching statistics online: perspectives from online students

Abstract

BackgroundTeaching online is a different experience from that of teaching in a face-to-face setting. Knowledge and skills developed for teaching face-to-face classes are not adequate preparation for teaching online. It is even more challenging to teach science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) courses completely online because these courses usually require more hands-on activities and live demonstrations. Although the demand for online STEM courses has never been higher, little has been done to develop effective instructional and online course design strategies for teaching STEM courses online. This paper reports the effectiveness of the instructional strategies adopted and the online course design features in a fully online statistics course from the students’ perspectives. The online statistics course was an introductory, quantitative research course that covered common statistical concepts and focused on the application of educational research concepts for graduate students in educational technology. In terms of the statistics concepts covered, the course was similar to an introductory statistics class for students majoring in science, technology, math and engineering (STEM). The participants were mostly K-20 (meaning from kindergarten to college) instructors who had knowledge of instructional strategies.ResultsData collected from participants’ reflections and course evaluations revealed that a range of instructional strategies and course design features were effective and helped students learn statistics in an online environment. Specifically, case studies, video demonstrations, instructor’s notes, mini projects, and an online discussion forum were most effective. For online course design features, consistent structure, various resources and learning activities, and the application focused course content were found to be effective.ConclusionsThe implications of this study include effective instructional strategies and online course design for application-oriented STEM courses such as physics and engineering. The study results can be used to guide online teaching and learning as well as online course design for instructors, course designers, and students in STEM fields.

Educational Leadership Doctoral Students’ Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Instructional Strategies and Course Design in a Fully Online Graduate Statistics Course

“…Students in this study found the spiraling nature of the lessons helpful in developing data habits of minds and providing logical building blocks for difficult subject matter such as statistics (Horton, 2015;Yang, 2017). In this course design, students were instructed to (a) study PowerPoint with Lectures and understand the statistical concept and learn how to perform statistical procedures; (b) study supplemental tutorial documents for step-by-step instructions and interpretation/writing up example; (c) attend or review synchronous live Q&A sessions (recording) to further their understanding; (d) practice on the statistical concepts in self-assessment/quiz; lastly and more importantly, (e) complete mini-project assignment.…”

“…It should be noted that, as this course mainly served doctoral-level students who were full-time professionals in the educational administration field, the conclusions made in this study may not be generalized to other programs with a different student body or other disciplines. Also, the interview questions used in this study were adopted from Yang (2017), where perceptions of students in a teacher training program were examined about their perspectives on the effectiveness of online instructional strategies used in a fully online statistics course. Additional questions could have been added to expand the research scope from different perspectives.…”

“…Empirical research has been conducted on the impact of instructional strategies and technology integration in teaching college statistics (Larwin & Larwin, 2011;Lu & Lemonde, 2013;Saadati, Tarmizi, Ayub, & Bakak, 2015;Sosa, Berger, Saw, & Mary, 2011). Yang (2017) explored students' perspectives on the effectiveness of online instructional strategies used in a fully online statistics course. Data, in the form of student reflection essays and an anonymous endof-semester course evaluation, were collected from 39 K-20 teachers enrolled in an online statistics course.…”

Theoretical Principles of Using Steam-Technologies in the Preparation of the Teacher of the New Ukrainian School

“…In particular, "mini projects were found to be one of the most effective strategies to complete the final project. Mini projects allow students time to master specific concepts and skills, such as checking initial data and forming a research question while internalizing learning" [21]. Actually, mini project helps in the real using of gained knowledge and its integral representation.…”

“…"The online discussion provided a place for students to post their questions and issues and also helped promote a sense of social presence and a sense of contributing to the class by providing responses to peers' questions and sharing helpful resources." As it is noted, that "online discussions are important in an online statistics class" [21].…”