Abstract:

Statistics teaching is often considered a challenging and difficult task, exacerbated by students who demonstrate ‘maths-anxiety’, a fear of performing mathematical tasks, resulting in avoidance. This is further heightened by a large gap in knowledge in students with either GCSE or A Level maths and university requirements. As a result, a number of innovative teaching methods have been introduced to allow students practical, hands-on experience, such as computer simulations or video tutorials. Additionally, authentic assessments, such as journal articles and problem-solving have been introduced to enhance engagement and understanding with statistical tasks. This study examines a second-year statistics course where both a change to teaching delivery (change of software and video tutorials implemented) and assessment strategy (Short-answer question (SAQ) exam and group poster presentation) were implemented. Students were largely happy with the materials provided for the course, especially the video tutorials and appreciated the change in software, highlighting the importance of learning programming skills in the era of big-data. Students were largely positive about the SAQ exam although the poster was met with more mixed feedback. The results are discussed in light of improvements to teaching statistics in a large cohort class, as well as reflections on authentic assessment.

Keywords:

Statistics, authentic assessment, presentation, coding.