Elementary Statistics: Making it Relevant Course Redesign

MTH 107 is an elementary statistics course that has traditionally had a high DFW rate (in the 30-40% range), in part due to poor mathematical preparation for the student body required to take this course (International Business and Global Studies majors) and the nature of how statistics is often taught. In our increasingly data-driven world and with the rise of big data, statistics courses must take on a more computational emphasis that enables students to work with real world data. Our aim is to improve student outcomes in their quantitative skills while also empowering students to use statistical methods to solve real world problems. To accomplish this, we propose to focus on application-driven projects and analysis using both Excel and RStudio.