Abstract:

Nowadays, I teach subjects included in projects for the adaptation of the Bologna Declaration in Spain. The typology of these subjects is very different; therefore the didactical methodology has to be adapted to each kind of subject, and also their resources. In one of these subjects, the number of students is very high and they are on-site students, such as Statistics in Design Industrial Engineering, with nearly 200 students, 120 of them are new students. However, other subjects are partly distance or virtual subjects, such as Simulation Modelling in the Master of Computational Mathematics, with a small number of students, some of them living in other countries. Consequently, the resources that I have developed are diverse according if we are in the first or second case. The resources I have made go from tutorial videos [1] and (free and on-line) books [2] (with a Creative Commons licence) for the second case, to self-learning and self-appraisal questions [3] or sections about FAQ&FRE (frequently asked questions & frequently repeated errors) in a virtual classroom to the first case. Furthermore, in this last case, I have also make notes and problems designed to the career (this is fundamental), combined with symbols and some humour points to make the study easier, together with laboratory material with different datasets for each student.

However, the utility of these or other resources for making their learning easier will be null if students do not put effort. This is the reason why I study the influence of their weekly work in their final results. The students freely provide me (weekly) the number of hours on-site and at home that they devote to the subject. With this information together with their final marks, I carried out a complete statistical analysis, where I could conclude that there were significant differences between the mean marks of the students according to:
1. They attend regularly or not to class.
2. The total number of hours that they devoted at home to the subject.
3. If they study weekly or not.
4. If the study strategy is gradual or concentrated.
Finally, it can be concluded (using a sportive simile) that the diary training is a key factor. This study was presented to the students in other courses.

References:
[1] Home page of Irene Epifanio at Universitat Jaume I, section Docència (curs 2009/10): http://www3.uji.es/~epifanio.
[2] I. Epifanio, P. Gregori. Ampliación de Estadística para la Ingeniería Técnica en Informática de Gestión. Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I, 2009. ISBN: 978-84-692-4538-5.
[3] A. Lloría, I. Epifanio, A. Beltrán. Material docente para el autoaprendizaje y la autoevaluación de la asignatura IS12 Estadística. Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I, 2003.
[4] I. Epifanio, A. Ródenas. Material docente para prácticas con R de la asignatura IG23 Ampliación de Estadística. Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I, 2006.

Keywords:

e-learning, technology, statistics.