Increasing Instructor-Student Interactions in a Large, Online Intro Course

• Activity Number: 71 - Teaching the First Course in Statistics
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 3, 2020 : 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics and Data Science Education
• Author(s): Ella Burnham* and Erin E Blankenship
• Companies: University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Keywords: education; online

Abstract

In order to better address the increased enrollment in a non-calculus based introductory statistics course at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, we developed an online intro course. After a couple of semesters teaching this class, instructors of this course wondered if they could have a more positive impact on their students’ success. In online courses, there are three frequently discussed types of interactions: instructor-student, student-student, and student-content (Moore, 1989). We implemented an intervention to increase instructor interactions with students. In this presentation, I will discuss the components of the intervention. I will also discuss the results from preliminary data collection. More specifically, I will compare students’ outcomes and perceptions of their interactions in semesters with and without the intervention.