Abstract:
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Technology plays a critical role in supporting statistics education, and student comprehension is improved when simulations accompanied by dynamic visualizations are employed. Many web-based teaching tool applets programmed in Java/Javascript are publicly available (e.g., www.rossmanchance.com, www.socr.ucla.edu). These provide a user-friendly interface which is accessible and appealing to students in introductory statistics courses. However, not all statistics educators are fluent in Java/Javascript, so may not be able to tailor these apps or create and develop their own apps. Shiny, a web application framework for R created by RStudio, facilitates applet development for educators who are familiar with R. We illustrate the utility, convenience, and versatility of Shiny through our collection of seventeen freely available apps covering a range of topics and levels (found at http://statistics.calpoly.edu/shiny). We illustrate how our apps have been used in statistics classes and discuss follow-up assignments we have given to students. Our source code is publicly available so that other educators may tailor our apps to suit their purposes.
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