Abstract #300815

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JSM 2003 Abstract #300815
Activity Number: 132
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Monday, August 4, 2003 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
Abstract - #300815
Title: Increasing Attendance in Introductory Statistics Courses: An Experiment from the Netherlands
Author(s): Padma Rao Sahib*+
Companies: University of Groningen
Address: Faculty of Economics, Dept. of International Economics and Business, Groningen, 9700 AV, Netherlands
Keywords: introductory statistics ; attendance ; statistical software ; notebook computers ; Dutch university system
Abstract:

We describe how an introductory statistics course taught to first-year students at a Dutch university was restructured to improve attendance. The Dutch university system differs in certain important ways from the university systems in North America and the United Kingdom. Factors such as the nature and timing of student evaluation, low tuition costs, the housing market and the lack of a campus often discourage attendance at lectures and tutorials. Low attendance is particularly acute in statistics courses.To improve attendance and student performance, we made two changes to the way an introductory statistics course was taught. First, we incorporated statistical software instruction in the tutorials, eliminating the need for separate instruction in computer rooms and reducing the number of meetings for the course.This change also integrated statistical software instruction with the teaching of statistics.It was made possible by using notebook computers with wireless internet connections. Second, we introduced incentives to attendance in the grading scheme of the course. Student attendance improved markedly from the previous year.

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