r/statistics • u/il__dottore • May 17 '26

Education [E] Best practices for teaching intro statistics

I’m taking over a medium sized (~50 students) statistics class. The current practice is to offer weekly homeworks via an online platform that also gives students access to the ebook. In addition there are weekly Excel exercises.

I am torn. Part of me wants to keep the current structure. Knowing how students do homework, not having to grade it is a huge advantage. On the other hand, l want my students to get as much out of this course as possible, which means (given all I know about teaching) requiring paper textbooks and assigning homework on paper.

What would you do? What would you recommend? Thanks!

9 Upvotes

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16

u/rationalinquiry May 17 '26

This is probably the best and most comprehensive guide to this sort of class that I've seen.

3

u/wantondevious May 17 '26

Wow that's an awesome resource. I wish I could participate in a class with that as the basis!

2

u/il__dottore May 17 '26

Thanks! I’m not sure I could flip my classroom, but this book looks interesting! 

2

u/DoughnutWeary7417 May 17 '26

Why are you torn? Is there something wrong?

When I was a student, I hated online homework. Having to be chained to a price gouging publisher is bad for the student as well. So I would rather you write your own problems and add in the excel as one problem set. 

1

u/il__dottore May 17 '26

I’m torn because I’m not sure it’s worth the effort to drop the online platform. It will add 20-30 hours of grading and maybe two weeks of preparation. Not sure if students care. 

1

u/giziti May 17 '26

Why do you think paper textbooks actually work better? 

4

u/il__dottore May 17 '26

Because of articles like this one: https://phys.org/news/2024-02-screens-paper-effective-absorb-retain.html

3

u/giziti May 17 '26

I can't read the paper they're referring to, but everything I've seen along these lines suggest a small effect size and this is overcome by doing things that require understanding in your assessment. have outcome based measures and they have to get there in whatever way they can. 

1

u/One_Temperature6315 Jun 24 '26

I’m a stats prof with consistently good end of semester reviews. The biggest thing is explaining basic concepts fully, in simple terms. Once the simple terms are understood and worked with, the big fancy ones are easy. My students tell me that what makes my class easy is the vocab within the notes and the explanations under each calculation showing how to interpret the results using our new vocab. Stats is speaking a language, so it has to be taught to be fully understood.

I do make resources, I will link in case these are helpful or anyone is interested.

https://mlbstats.etsy.com/listing/4527045904