Statistics Exerciser

Initial situation

The teacher of this compulsory 1st year statistics course was faced with several observations. The course had a very poor image among students who were very apprehensive about mathematics. Only a minority of students were able to correctly interpret statistical results at the end of the semester. Finally, participation in the exercises was low. However, regular work ensures that a step is understood before tackling the next one, which is essential for statistics, where understanding is essentially “cumulative”.

Project implementation

The 2016 course redesign was intended to address these issues. In addition to refocusing the course around the interpretation of statistical results, several pedagogical innovations were implemented with the following objectives:

to make students more active in the course and seminars;

to increase the proportion of students doing the exercises before the seminars;

to improve the quality of the work associated with the exercises by encouraging them to identify and overcome their errors;

to set up specific times for theoretical and interpretation exercises.

The main innovation concerns the implementation of randomly generated practical exercises on Moodle with automatic correction, an unlimited number of attempts and a minimum number of points to reach. Each week after the course, students are invited to do a certain number of exercises on Moodle to apply their theoretical knowledge. Note that :

the data and statements of the exercise are randomly generated. This system has the advantage of proposing a unique exercise to each student and of preventing copying attempts between students;

as soon as a practical task (TP) is submitted by a student, it is automatically corrected and the correct answers are provided to the student for formative evaluation purposes;

a minimum percentage of points is required ( usually 80%) to validate a practical work;

students have as many attempts as they wish (these being always different) to reach this minimum, only the best attempt is retained. This encourages students to identify and overcome their mistakes;

a bonus of 0.5 on the final grade is given to students who have completed all the homework assignments.

These Moodle exercises are mainly used for “technical” learning. The second innovation is the use of more qualitative exercises (interpretation…) during the seminars. These exercises are done in small groups with the help of the assistants before being corrected collectively.

Thoughts and advice

The teacher noted a strong increase in student involvement and in the number of questions during the semester. A clear improvement in the interpretation of results was observed in the exams.

This project is still in development, at the computer level, the use of Moodle could be improved. In addition, it is planned to increase the number of exercises offered as well as the details of the corrections (addition of a link to the corresponding course on Mediaserver, link to videos).

The teacher insists on the fact that such a project requires a lot of time and that it is necessary to identify in advance the teaching needs (in this course, the cumulative learning of statistics and the participation of students in the exercises). It is also essential to have the necessary means for its implementation, i.e. a team of assistants and medium-term stability to be able to invest and innovate.

The evaluation of the course by the students is excellent, despite their very strong reluctance towards statistics. Many students mention the Moodle exercises and the organization of the course as strong points. Overall, they find the Moodle tutorials extremely useful and would like to see them used more widely. The fact that they can get a bonus for consistent work throughout the semester is motivating. Students also feel a strong sense of progress in overcoming their mistakes. They point out, however, that such exercises require a large investment of time (especially for those who make multiple attempts before reaching the required 80% success rate) and sometimes complain that the time frame is too short and inflexible since the exercises must be done before each seminar.

Student feedback

“The exercises on Moodle each week really help with ongoing work throughout the semester, and that is motivating.” “The Moodle practical trainings each week makes it easier to assimilate the material continuously which is very positive.” “The practical training is an excellent idea, because it allows both long-term training (and therefore better memorization), but above all to put into practice the examples and theories seen in class.” “Way too long for the credits given, too much time to invest in this subject, for which the seminar should be more effective.” “Moodle practical trainings is a good idea, maybe don’t put it in every week, more like every two weeks, otherwise it allows you to become self-sufficient and practical for the course material.” “Moodle practical trainings take time to do, but they provide a good learning experience by learning from mistakes and repeating until you get 100% of the points. They are great exercises to consolidate our knowledge and even to understand concepts that were still unclear at the end of the course.” “The practical trainings are very helpful in understanding and assimilating the subject. This kind of branch requires practice and the practical exercises do exactly that. In addition, since we can try as many times as we want, it allows us to learn and review things that are not well understood.”