The Use and Reuse of Materials: The OLI Statistics Course

Caren McClureProfessor of Mathematics - Santa Ana College

Candace ThilleDirector, Open Learning Initiative - Carnegie Mellon University

Financial and Intellectual Support provided by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

We may not have to reinvent the wheel, but we can make it better, adapt it to today’s times, and tweak it to meet the needs of our students.

It’s all about student learning!

“Learning results from what the student does and thinks and only from what the student does and thinks. The teacher can advance learning only by influencing what the student does to learn.”

—Herbert Simon

OLI Goals• Develop exemplars of scientifically based

online courses and course materials that enact instruction and support instructors

• Provide open access to these courses and materials

• Develop a community of use that contributes to the evaluation, iterative improvement, and ongoing growth of the courses and materials.

Oh, okay. Um, I'm not really sure if- do I need to uh we can just, like, graph it, right? Uh line plot, I guess. … oh, uh histograms, bar charts maybe a boxplot? Uh, no... Uh, uh histogram, um data table, um…in statistics class that always worked when you got stuck, just make a boxplot, and see what happened. So uh, I'll boxplot them, um, y by x. [bleep] Uh oh, it says the variable rank has 30 categories, shall I continue? Usually that was bad, so I cancel that, because it shouldn't come out like that…

Transcript of Student Solving Data Analysis Problem:

The OLI Statistics Course

What is a Cognitive Tutor?

• A computerized learning environment whose design is based on cognitive principles and whose interaction with students is based on that of a (human) tutor—i.e., making comments when the student errs, answering questions about what to do next, and maintaining a low profile when the student is performing well.

StatTutor

Feedback Loops

• The OLI students completed course in 8 weeks with 2 class mtgs/week. Traditional students completed the course in 15 weeks with 4 class mtgs/week.

• OLI & traditional students spent the same amount of time in a given week on Statistics outside of class

• The OLI students gained much more (on the CAOS test)

than did the “traditional controls”

• There was no significant difference in retention between OLI students and traditional students in tests given 1+ semesters later.

Summary of “Accelerated Learning” Study

Concerns with the Current Course At Santa Ana Community College

• Pass Rates

• Lack of Conceptual Understanding and Lack of the Ability to Apply the Concepts

• Students Having the Most Trouble are the Least Likely to Ask Questions or Seek Help from the Instructor

• Students Don’t Complete Assignments

OLI Statistics Course

• Focus on Conceptual Understanding Instead of Computation

• Rich with Interesting Applications

• Hands-On Assessments with Feedback

• Supports the Use of Minitab Software

What I’m Finding

• Takes Time to Acclimate Students

• Students Resist a Change in Teaching Style from Teacher-Centered to Student-Centered

• Students Need to be Shown How to Self-Assess their Understanding

• Takes Time for Other Faculty to Buy-In to Change

How I’m Adapting the Online Materials

• Using Tutor Tools to Write Assessments

• Modified Course from just “Did I Get This?” to “Did I Get This Yet?”

How I’m Adapting the Course Materials

• Adding Daily Problems Based Upon Student Feedback

• Adding Weekly Additional Problems for Students to Complete on Their Own

• Adding More Lab Activities Without Automated Feedback

Additional Examples Of Re-use• CSU – Stat course replace textbook and Lecture

– use class time for collaborative lab work.• A US virtual high school - AP Stat• A small US medical school - second year

graduate students• University in Qatar – StatTutor supplements intro

stats – cultural adaptation translation • University in Colombia – combine OLI Statistics

and CSR – redesign quantitative methods curriculum

• CSU – Replace textbook in large lecture course – rewrite exercises to create version in “R”

“Improvement in post-secondary education will require converting teaching from a ‘solo sport’ to a community-based research activity.”

Herbert Simon

www.cmu.edu/oli

mcclure_caren@sac.educhille@cmu.edu