Student Choices of Reduced Seat Time in a Blended Introductory Statistics Course

• Activity Number: 189
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 5, 2013 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): James R. Schmidt*+ and Carlos J. Asarta
• Companies: University of Nebraska - Lincoln and University of Nebraska - Lincoln
• Keywords: blended ; course ; student ; choice ; online ; face-to-face

Abstract

The blended format has become a popular mode of course delivery. A federal report defines blended courses as combining online and in-class instruction with reduced in-class seat time. But "how blended" is a course that is described or promoted as being blended? At one end of the blended spectrum is the traditional face-to-face course with no online content while at the other end is the purely online course. We propose that students, when given the opportunity, will determine for themselves "how blended" a blended course will be. The blended course in this study is a collegiate introductory statistics course where lectures are only available online while the traditional class period is used for complementary learning activities. A student can create an approximation to a traditional course by regularly attending class periods. At the other extreme, if students choose not to attend class periods they are effectively creating an online course. We present evidence on the degrees of blending that students choose in the introductory statistics class and we show how student characteristics are related to the choice patterns.