Online Program

Communicating Applied Statistics Through Online Courses and Consulting (303030)

Keywords: Consulting, Remote Learning

Our professional master of applied statistics program has been offered in resident courses since 2001. In 2006, we began offering the same courses online for a certificate leading to the full master’s of applied statistics degree, available entirely online since 2009. This poster session will provide a conceptual overview of applied statistics as reflected in our program and address the challenges of teaching entirely online. The capstone course for the program requires students to identify and analyze a real-world consulting problem and communicate the problem addressed and the statistical solution proposed. We will discuss how we met the challenge of creating virtual consulting sessions across multiple time zones with students and clients interacting to address the problem presented by the consulting client. A combination of video recordings and live sessions are used to provide feedback for teaching the art and science of providing good statistical advice to clients requiring statistical advice. The presentation will describe situations that worked well and those that did not.