The Use and Reuse of Materials:
The OLI Statistics Course
Caren McClure
Professor of Mathematics - Santa Ana College
Candace Thille
Director, 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.
Transcript of Student Solving
Data Analysis Problem:
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…
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
Summary of “Accelerated Learning”
Study
• 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.
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
[email protected]
[email protected]