All Times EDT
Keywords: professional skills, technical skills, consulting, communication
The successful statistical consultant needs to combine expert technical knowledge with the professional skills required to communicate data analysis results to a client whose background in statistics may be very limited. In this talk I discuss issues and opportunities for teaching an undergraduate statistical consulting course. A central component of the course is for each pair of students to work as statistical consultants throughout the semester for a client on an actual project. Projects are solicited from staff, faculty, and, community organizations. Using a Team-Based Learning model, students practice skills crucial to the successful statistical consultant including team work, writing up a data analysis, managing one’s time on a long-term project, organizing a client meeting, and listening to a client.