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Mathematics Education Centre

Mathematics Education Centre. SUPPORTING NON-STATISTICIANS TO LEARN STATISTICS Alun Owen. SUPPORTING NON-STATISTICIANS TO LEARN STATISTICS. Provision of a Statistics Advisory Service at: Coventry University Loughborough University Beyond statstutor

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Mathematics Education Centre

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  1. Mathematics Education Centre SUPPORTING NON-STATISTICIANS TO LEARN STATISTICS Alun Owen

  2. SUPPORTING NON-STATISTICIANS TO LEARN STATISTICS • Provision of a Statistics Advisory Service at: • Coventry University • Loughborough University • Beyond • statstutor • a sigma pilot study

  3. 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)

  4. GROWTH IN NUMBERS OF SAS APPOINTMENTS • Note: • one-hour appointments at Coventry University • half-hour appointments at Loughborough University • In 2007/2008 both institutions had staffing shortages

  5. 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

  6. WHAT SUPPORT IS REQUESTED? • Topic based: help with understanding part or all of a statistics topic • Conceptual • Practical application • Problem based: help with various statistical aspects of a problem • Study design • Data collection • Analysis • Practical application • Interpretation of results

  7. 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

  8. 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)

  9. 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

  10. 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?

  11. 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

  12. 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

  13. CONTENTS • Topic-based resources • using STEPS Glossary as a basis • Case studies • using RSS CSE materials as a basis

  14. MATHCENTRE • mathcentre • http://www.mathcentre.ac.uk/students.php • mathtutor • http://www.mathtutor.ac.uk

  15. STEPS GLOSSARY • STEPS Glossary • http://www.stats.gla.ac.uk/steps/glossary

  16. RSS CSE CASE STUDIES

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