SUPPORTING

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Mathematics
Education Centre

• SUPPORTING
• NON-STATISTICIANS
• TO LEARN STATISTICS
• Alun Owen

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SUPPORTING NON-STATISTICIANS TO LEARN STATISTICS

• Provision of a Statistics Advisory Service at
• Coventry University
• Loughborough University
• Beyond
• statstutor
• a sigma pilot study

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PROVISION OF A STATISTICS ADVISORY SERVICE

• Loughborough University
• http//mlsc.lboro.ac.uk/servicesstat.php
• Drop-in statistics help
• Consultancy appointments
• Disability and Additional Needs Service
• Eureka Centre
• Short courses (research students)

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GROWTH IN NUMBERS OF SAS APPOINTMENTS
Number of appointments 2004 baseline 2005/06 (target) 2006/07 (target) 2007/08 (target) 2008/09 (target)
Loughborough 0 63 (50) 136 (60) 125 (70) 165 (75)
Coventry 0 66 (50) 98 (60) 92 (70) 95 (80)
Total 0 129 (100) 234 (120) 217 (140) 260 (155)
Note one-hour appointments at Coventry
University half-hour appointments at Loughborough
University In 2007/2008 both institutions had
staffing shortages
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ACCESS TO STATISTICS ADVISORY SERVICE BY STAFF

• Sigmas aim NOT to provide a statistics advisory
  service for staff
• But demand from staff significant
• Roberts funding and staff development funding
  enabled us to widen support to staff
• An unexpected outcome of sigmas work
• Brings additional benefits

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WHAT SUPPORT IS REQUESTED?

• Topic based help with understanding part or all
  of a statistics topic
• Conceptual
• Practical application
• Problem based help with various statistical
  aspects of a problem
• Study design
• Data collection
• Analysis
• Practical application
• Interpretation of results

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TOPIC BASED SUPPORT

• Mainly provided via the drop-in centre
• First need to diagnose the students learning
  needs
• Opportunities to develop students self-learning
  skills
• Help identify suitable resources they can refer
  to
• Encouraged to work in centre and ask for help

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PROBLEM BASED SUPPORT

• We will NOT do the work for you
• Again need to diagnose the students learning
  needs
• Again develop students self-learning skills
• Again identify suitable resources they can refer
  to
• Consider other aspects of collecting and
  analysing data such as planning, choice of
  technique etc.
• Pragmatic approach sometimes needed
• (gold-standard not always possible/necessary)

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HOW DOES LEARNING TAKE PLACE?

• Learning is student-centred
• Problem based
• We act as advisors
• But also act as facilitators
• Fits with aims of project work and research
  training
• Also fits with recent developments in the HE
  agenda

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PROVISION OF STATISTICS ADVISORY SERVICES

• Significant growth in institutions developing
  their own mathematics learning centres
• Some of these supported by sigma
• Targeted statistics advisory services appear to
  be not so well developed
• Aware of Coventry, Loughborough, Sheffield and
  Cardiff and others?

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STATISTICS SUPPORT FOR DISTANCE LEARNERS

• What about students studying/researching
  off-campus e.g. distance learners?
• Loughborough and Coventry universities making
  use of Elluminate for this
• http//www.elluminate.com

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statstutor

• Online resource for statistics
• Alternative to drop-in and consultancy
• For undergraduates and postgraduates
• Make use of existing resources
• Pilot at this stage
• Anticipate go live Easter 2010

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CONTENTS

• Topic-based resources
• using STEPS Glossary as a basis
• Case studies
• using RSS CSE materials as a basis

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MATHCENTRE

• mathcentre
• http//www.mathcentre.ac.uk/students.php
• mathtutor
• http//www.mathtutor.ac.uk

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STEPS GLOSSARY

• STEPS Glossary
• http//www.stats.gla.ac.uk/steps/glossary

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RSS CSE CASE STUDIES