The development and evaluation of a survey that makes use of student data to teach statistics

Abstract

The use of a real data set has the potential to increase engagement and learning in students who enrol in a statistics course at university. The present report describes the development of an approach that uses a real data set, but one that is collected from the students. The questions are designed so that the data set can be used throughout the course to illustrate relevant concepts and methods in the application of introductory statistics. An evaluation was conducted via individual interviews with a random sample of 38 students. Quantitative and qualitative responses indicated that the survey led to in-class participation, was perceived to be a different approach, and contributed to an interest in, understanding of, and appreciation of the relevance of statistics. The creative use of student data is recommended to facilitate the learning of statistics.