- Prof Dev
In this 20 minute video, doctor and researcher Hans Rosling uses his fascinating data-bubble software to burst myths about the developing world. The video includes new analysis on China and the post-bailout world, mixed with classic data shows.
An important idea in statistics is that the amount of data matters. We often teach this with formulas --- the standard error of the mean, the t-statistic, etc. --- in which the sample size appears in a denominator as âˆšn. This is fine, so far as it goes, but it often fails to connect with a student's intuition. In this presentation, I'll describe a kinesthetic learning activity --- literally a random walk --- that helps drive home to students why more data is better and why the square-root arises naturally and can be understood by simple geometry. Students remember this activity and its lesson long after they have forgotten the formulas from their statistics class.
Many of us, while teaching an introductory statistics course, have mentioned some of the history behind the methodology, perhaps just in passing. We might remark that an English chap by the name of R. A. Fisher is responsible for a great deal of the course content. We could further point out that the statistical techniques used in research today were developed within the last century, for the most part. At most, we might reveal the identity of the mysterious "Student" when introducing the t-test to our class. I propose that we do more of this. This webinar will highlight some opportunities to give brief history lessons while teaching an introductory statistics course.
December 12, 2006 webinar presented by Michelle Everson, University of Minnesota, and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. This webinar focuses on describing an introductory statistics course that is taught completely online. The structure of this course is described, and samples of different student assignments and activities are presented. Assessment data and student feedback about the course are also presented. Discussion focuses on issues that must be considered when developing and administering an online course, such as the instructor's role in the online course and ways to create an active learning environment in an online course.