DEVELOPING STATISTICAL LITERACY ACROSS SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND GEOGRAPHICAL BARRIERS USING A "STAND-ALONE" ONLINE COURSE

Carnegie Mellon University was funded to develop a "stand-alone" web-based introductory statistics course, openly and freely available to individual learners online. The goal of this project is to develop statistical literacy among people who do not have access to academic institutions because of remote locations, financial difficulties or social barriers. In order to achieve this goal, the design of the course has been a collaboration among statistics faculty, cognitive scientists and experts in human computer interaction. This paper discusses the challenges in developing such a learning environment and ways in which the course tries to address them. We also describe the design and results of a pilot study where the degree to which the course is successful in developing statistical literacy has been examined. INTRODUCTION As part of the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) project, Carnegie Mellon University has been funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to develop an online introductory statistics course. The Foundation's interest is in providing open access to high-quality post- secondary education and educational materials to those who otherwise would be excluded due to geographic, economic or time constraints (Smith and Thille, 2004), as well as for those who due to social barriers are not encouraged to pursue higher education. In other words, we were asked to develop a web-based introductory statistics course that will be openly and freely available to individual learners online. The use of web-based instruction can take many forms. According to Utts et al. (2005), the options range from using web-based applications in a traditional course to full-blown online courses in which there is no face-to-face contact with an instructor. The latter, as we understand it, refers to distance learning where an instructor exists and his/her interaction with the students is mediated "electronically," An online course that meets the Foundation's goal adds a new "end-point" to this continuum; a complete "stand-alone," or self-sufficient online course which does not require an instructor in the background. Such a course can, of course, be used in any form on the "web-based instruction continuum," and in fact, using the course in "hybrid" forms is aligned with one of The Hewlett Foundation's other priorities - "California Reform" - supporting California's community colleges in providing high-quality education to all students even as the state experiences a vast increase in enrollment known as "Tidal Wave II" (CPEC, 1999). In addition, in their research on the market for online statistics courses, Griffiths and Rascoff (2005) reported that two-year colleges in general, due to their limited ability to innovate, are good candidates for a new online statistics course which will bring their statistics curriculum up to date in substance and teaching methodology. Even though the course can support introductory statistics instruction in a variety of ways, its design and development processes was guided by The Hewlett Foundation's primary interest - the needs of the individual learner using the course to develop statistical literacy as a complete stand-alone course. THE COURSE DESIGN Our general approach to the task of developing a stand-alone web-based course was to create a course that would be as close to a fully online enactment of instruction as possible. The course design used the wealth of experience and knowledge of statistics faculty members and is informed by general cognitive theory and by learning principles that are specific to statistics. The course design was also informed by earlier research conducted at Carnegie Mellon into how students learn statistical reasoning. In this section we'll present some of the challenges we confronted when making the transition from the classroom to an online format, and demonstrate how teaching experience and learning principles helped us address them.