Reducing Bottlenecks and Improving Student Success in Large Enrollment Statistics Courses

Stat 250 is a general elective introductory statistics and data analysis course for students throughout the sciences, social sciences, health and human services, and business. This project entails the second phase of the course redesign. In the first phase, statistical computing lab assignments (simulations and data analyses), concept review and computing demonstration videos, and LMS-based conceptual online homework assignments were developed. These aspects were incorporated in the Spring 2015 offering of the course, each offered online as part of the students' work outside the classroom (ePortfolio: http://contentbuilder.merlot.org/toolkit/users/sdsumathstat/sdsu_stat25… This link will take you to an external website in a new tab..) In this second phase, we will develop a flipped classroom format whereby students learn core statistical concepts in online videos created by the instructors and participate in computer data analysis labs and directed problem-solving discussions in the classroom. The aim of this approach is to teach statistics by doing, internalizing key concepts in experimental design, data collection, and analysis as well as statistical communication and assessments through an active classroom learning environment. The ultimate goal is to scale this effort up to all introductory statistics courses taught on campus, through online core concept lectures and subject-specific data analysis/statistical problem solving laboratories.