SUPPORTINGNON-STATISTICIANS

TO LEARN STATISTICS

Alun Owen

Mathematics Education Centre

SUPPORTING NON-STATISTICIANS TO LEARN STATISTICS

• Provision of a Statistics Advisory Service at:

• Coventry University

• Loughborough University

• Beyond

• statstutor

• a sigma pilot study

PROVISION OF A STATISTICS ADVISORY SERVICE

• Loughborough University:http://mlsc.lboro.ac.uk/servicesstat.php

• Drop-in statistics help

• Consultancy appointments

• Disability and Additional Needs Service

• Eureka Centre

• Short courses (research students)

GROWTH IN NUMBERS OF SAS APPOINTMENTS

Number of appointments

2004 baseline

2005/06 (target)

2006/07 (target)

2007/08 (target)

2008/09 (target)

Loughborough 0 63 (50) 136 (60) 125 (70) 165 (75)

Coventry 0 66 (50) 98 (60) 92 (70) 95 (80)

Total 0 129 (100) 234 (120) 217 (140) 260 (155)

Note:

one-hour appointments at Coventry University

half-hour appointments at Loughborough University

In 2007/2008 both institutions had staffing shortages

ACCESS TO STATISTICS ADVISORY SERVICE BY STAFF

• Sigma’s aim NOT to provide a statistics advisory service for staff

• But demand from staff significant

• Roberts funding and staff development funding enabled us to widen support to staff

• An unexpected outcome of sigma’s work

• Brings additional benefits

WHAT SUPPORT IS REQUESTED?

1. Topic based: help with understanding part or all of a statistics topic

• Conceptual

• Practical application

2. Problem based: help with various statistical aspects of a problem

• Study design

• Data collection

• Analysis

• Practical application

• Interpretation of results

TOPIC BASED SUPPORT

• Mainly provided via the drop-in centre

• First need to diagnose the students learning needs

• Opportunities to develop students self-learning skills

• Help identify suitable resources they can refer to

• Encouraged to work in centre and ask for help

PROBLEM BASED SUPPORT

•“We will NOT do the work for you”

• Again need to diagnose the students learning needs

• Again develop students self-learning skills

• Again identify suitable resources they can refer to

• Consider other aspects of collecting and analysing data such as planning, choice of technique etc.

• Pragmatic approach sometimes needed (gold-standard not always possible/necessary)

HOW DOES LEARNING TAKE PLACE?

• Learning is student-centred

• Problem based

• We act as advisors

• But also act as facilitators

• Fits with aims of project work and research training

• Also fits with recent developments in the HE agenda

PROVISION OF STATISTICS ADVISORY SERVICES

• Significant growth in institutions developing their own mathematics learning centres

• Some of these supported by sigma

• Targeted statistics advisory services appear to be not so well developed

• Aware of Coventry, Loughborough, Sheffield and Cardiff and others?

STATISTICS SUPPORT FOR DISTANCE LEARNERS

• What about students studying/researching “off-campus” e.g. distance learners? • Loughborough and Coventry universities making use of Elluminate for this

http://www.elluminate.com

statstutor

• Online resource for statistics

• Alternative to drop-in and consultancy

• For undergraduates and postgraduates

• Make use of existing resources

• Pilot at this stage

• Anticipate go live Easter 2010

CONTENTS

• Topic-based resources

• using STEPS Glossary as a basis

• Case studies

• using RSS CSE materials as a basis

MATHCENTRE

• mathcentre

http://www.mathcentre.ac.uk/students.php

• mathtutor

http://www.mathtutor.ac.uk

STEPS GLOSSARY

• STEPS Glossary

http://www.stats.gla.ac.uk/steps/glossary

RSS CSE CASE STUDIES