Using Projects in Online Elementary Statistics

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Using Projects in Online Elementary Statistics

• Karen A. Estes, Ph.D.
• St. Petersburg College
• Tarpon Springs Campus
• AMATYCNovember, 2003
• Distance Learning and the Technology that Makes
  it Possible

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Online and Blended ClassesWhy Use Group Projects?

• What I tell my students
• Research shows that good collaborative study
  groups can be very effective in helping students
  to do well in classes.
• Many jobs require employees to work in teams on
  projects, and employers repeatedly ask for
  students to have experience working in teams.

Distance Learning and the Technology that Makes
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Online and Blended ClassesSelecting Groups

• Through replies to the Bulletin Board, students
  organize into groups of 4 - 5
• Name, major and career goal
• Grade you intend to earn
• Times for collaboration (chat, IM, phone)
• Special skills you add to the group
• Time management styleearly and steady or last
  minute

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Online and Blended ClassesSelecting Groups

• Blended Student replies
• Elementary Education I would like to make a
  difference in the lives of children.
• I would love to get an A in the classstrive to
  do my very best
• I am in the T/R 530 I live in Holiday
• e-mail or face-to-face will work for me
• I am good in Word and I'm getting better in
  DataDesk thanks to this class.

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Online and Blended ClassesSelecting Groups

• Blended Student replies
• I am striving for my MSN (nursing)
• I would like an A in the class
• I am in the 940 TR class.
• I have 2 babies and few babysitters- I need
  mostly e-mail collab. if possible or right after
  class for short meetings.
• I'm moderately skilled in WORD.

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Online and Blended ClassesSelecting Groups

• Blended Student replies
• Finance (maybe)
• Hopefully an A
• TUE / TH 530 PM Tarpon Springs
• After class, email, maybe on a Sat (need advance
  notice)
• Office products (Excel, Word, etc.), some
  statistical software

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Online and Blended ClassesSelecting Groups

• Online Student replies
• Elementary Education/Teaching in a Montessori
  school
• A and Ill put in extra work to ensure that.
• chat room or email - Monday, Tuesday and Friday
  from 9AM-Noon, Saturday mornings and any evening
  after 9 PM.
• I'm good with typing and pretty good with data
  desk. I keep things extremely organized
  especially in math classes. Im flexible.

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Online and Blended ClassesSelecting Groups

• Online Student replies
• Business Management / Intend to run my own
  business
• I am trying to get an A. I would like to work
  with others that are willing to work as hard as
  myself. Doesn't have to be an A just has to be
  best effort.
• I live out of state so I would have to
  collaborate online in a chat room or through
  email.
• I feel like I have a good grasp on Desktop data.
  I am a hard worker and will do any tasks needed
  by the group. Flexible schedule.

Distance Learning and the Technology that Makes
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Online and Blended ClassesSelecting Groups

• Online Student replies
• Environmental Studies/ I hope to work for a
  Federal agency promoting conservation issues
• I am working for an "A" of course.
• Class Chat room so we can all put our ideas out
  there together. Private mail to keep in touch.
  Tuesday and Wednesday evenings are best.
• Special skills organized and very creative,
  positive attitude even under stress ) Don't
  hesitate to reach me so we can get started.

Distance Learning and the Technology that Makes
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Online and Blended ClassesThe First Group Project

• Title Page projectCollaborate to
• Choose a name for the title page.
• Choose a group name.
• Identify the group leader (responsible for
  submitting projects) and other group members.
• Revise the title page with this information.
• Email the completed project to me.

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Online and Blended ClassesThe First Group Project

• Selected Title Pages
• The Juxtapositions of the Four Statisticians
• The Bimodal Betties
• AAAA, Group Leader/Correspondent
• BBBB
• CCCC
• DDDD
• STA 2023 Elementary Statistics Online

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Online and Blended ClassesThe First Group Project

• Selected Title Pages
• Meet the Exceptional
• 99th Percentile
• AAAA, Group Leader/Correspondent
• BBBB
• CCCC
• DDDD
• STA 2023 Elementary Statistics Online

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Online and Blended ClassesThe First Group Project

• Selected Title Pages
• The Observation Symphony
• Five Number Summary
• AAAA, Group Leader/Correspondent
• BBBB
• CCCC
• DDDD
• STA 2023 Elementary Statistics TR 530

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Online and Blended ClassesThe First Group Project

• Selected Title Pages
• Code Blue Stats
• Nurse Stats
• AAAA, Group Leader/Correspondent
• BBBB
• CCCC
• DDDD
• STA 2023 Elementary Statistics TR 530

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Online and Blended ClassesThe First Group Project

• Bulletin Board Groups
• When the title page is turned in, I create
  private groups.
• Students can use this asynchronous discussion
  area for group communication and sharing of
  files.
• I am a member of each group so that I can help as
  needed.

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Online and Blended ClassesThe First Group Project

• Traditional
• Bulletin Board
• Groups

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Online and Blended ClassesThe Second Group
Project

• Midterm Project
• The goal of this project is to compare Dr. Estes
  online and traditional STA 2023 students.
• One goal is to compare demographic data to see if
  the students in the online group come from a
  different population.
• Another goal is to determine if there is a
  difference in success rates for the two groups.

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Online and Blended ClassesThe Second Group
Project

• Midterm Project
• The project has 11 sections for the groups to
  address.
• For each section of the analysis, there is to be
  at least one primary author and at least two
  reviewers.
• The group determines the assigned sections for
  each member.

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Online and Blended ClassesThe Second Group
Project

• Midterm Project
• Each group member must be the primary author of
  at least 2 sections.
• Each group member must be a reviewer of at least
  2 sections.
• This is the first time I have used this method to
  track student work. It was successful, and I
  will use it again.
• I think it encouraged collaboration, and it
  facilitated grading.

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Online and Blended ClassesThe Second Group
Project

• Monitoring Group Work
• In some groups, students read the project and
  volunteered to complete certain sections.
• In some groups, the group leader made
  assignments.
• In future assignments, I will ask for a list of
  assigned sections to be sent to me.
• Setting a deadline for section assignments may
  help groups get an earlier and more organized
  start.

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Online and Blended ClassesThe Second Group
Project

• Monitoring Group Work
• Hi Group (and Dr. Estes, if you can see this).
• I went ahead and made the assignments for the
  group project. I hope this is ok with you all.
  Please see the attachment. I feel we also need to
  set a deadline for it to be complete and sent to
  me so that I can submit it. How does October 15th
  sound? It's due the 21st and Dr. Estes said that
  if we finished it early it would help us study
  for the midterm. That sounds good to me...and
  also I don't want to spend all weekend working on
  this. Let me know if this is all good with you.
  Thanks.

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Online and Blended ClassesThe Second Group
Project

• Monitoring Group Work
• Hi All,
• FYI For those of you who are reviewing my work,
  if you do the plots yourselves on Data Desk,
  they'll look a bit different than mine because I
  modfified them for accuracy. On the histogram for
  4 I made the bar width 5 hours per week and the
  bar tick interval 3. For the boxplot in 8, i
  made the window bigger, shifted the maximum
  y-value to 100 on the y-axis and made the ticks
  on the y-axis go by tens rather than twenties.

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Online and Blended ClassesThe Second Group
Project

• Monitoring Group Work
• Hi All,
• For you to review. I didn't have a lot of
  confidence in my description, so would appreciate
  your scrutinizing.

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Online and Blended ClassesThe Second Group
Project

• Monitoring Group Work
• Hi All,
• Thanks. I made corrections to the second
  paragraph to your suggestions. I'm looking into
  the mean/median being close. It doesn't seem like
  a big difference, but since it is talking about
  years I'll look into it. I'm also going to
  elaborate a little on the median, min/max and
  IQR. I really didn't go into that like I should
  have.

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Online and Blended ClassesThe Second Group
Project

• Monitoring Group Work
• Hi All,
• Attached is the paper. Please, everyone, review
  the sections that you did and the ones you are to
  review. Forward any corrections and/or
  suggestions to me (make sure to include the
  section that it's in). Michele, all parts are now
  complete and you can summarize the results, if
  you haven't already done it. Just email it back
  to me, I will proof the final again and submit it
  to Dr. Estes. Thanks everyone.

Distance Learning and the Technology that Makes
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Online and Blended ClassesThe Second Group
Project

• Submitting Group Work
• Hi Dr. Estes,
• Presented for your reading pleasure, from the
  Bimodal Betties.
• The final projects were submitted through the
  bulletin board.
• I graded them electronically and returned them
  through the bulletin board.

Distance Learning and the Technology that Makes
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Online and Blended ClassesWhat Can Go Wrong?

• Students without groups
• Some students are shy about speaking up to get
  into groups. They make the initial posting, but
  do not follow up.
• I help these students find groups. I often look
  at major or achievement.
• I grade title page projects as they come in so I
  can send a reminder to students not in groups.

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Online and Blended ClassesWhat Can Go Wrong?

• Students without groups
• Some students want to work alone.
• I remind the students of the initial goals and
  the need to have both primary authors and
  reviewers.
• I may help these students find a group.

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Online and Blended ClassesWhat Can Go Wrong?

• Students without groups
• Some students do not monitor the bulletin board
  and miss the posting to form groups.
• I help the last-minute students find each other
  and form a group.

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Online and Blended ClassesWhat Can Go Wrong?

• Groups that exclude some members
• One group met by Instant Messaging in some other
  environment. One student got left out
  completelyor he never bothered to contribute.
• I could not sort out who was at fault and who was
  the victim. I let the orphan student submit
  his own project.
• I am reluctant to insist that the bulletin board
  private groups be used, but it does help track
  communication.

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Online and Blended ClassesWhat Can Go Wrong?

• Some group members procrastinate
• Some group members communicate with me about
  non-productive group members.
• I then email or call that person to see if they
  need help. I ask them to come in to see me or
  the tutor, if possible. Sometimes we work by
  phone to help them get started.

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Online and Blended ClassesWhat Can Go Wrong?

• Group members do not complete their assigned
  sections
• I suggest that groups can take the extreme
  measure of voting non-participating group members
  out of the group.
• I had only one student who really failed her
  group. I gave the group an extension so that
  others could complete her work. When she called,
  I had the dated communications (all but one after
  the due date). She chose to withdraw.

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Online and Blended ClassesWhat Can Go Wrong?

• Online Bulletin Board Groups

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Online and Blended ClassesProjects? YES!!

• I think the benefits for students far outweigh
  the problems.

Distance Learning and the Technology that Makes
It Possible