Journal of Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences
Volume 7 (2003), Issue 2, Pages 65-73
doi:10.1155/S1173912603000063
From classroom to online teaching: experiences in improving statistics education
1School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics, University of Wollongong Australia, Australia
2Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong Australia, Australia
Copyright © 2003 Anne Porter et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
This study used reflective practitioner methodology to investigate how to improve the quality of statistical education. During the study, this methodology, curricula, pedagogical practices, assessment and a framework for learning to learn statistics were all developed as means of improving the quality of statistical education. Also documented was the move from being a classroom teacher of statistics to a teacher who is developing learning resources for online delivery to students. For a classroom teacher, flexible delivery has meant drawing on the sights, sounds, movement, quiet and live shows. By contrast, the online teacher feels the constraints of translating activity based programs to technologically based programs. As more students have chosen to rely on online materials rather than classroom activities, the focus of improving quality has been extended to the enrichment of online resources, so that the learning experience is not second to that of the classroom.