Clickers in a first statistics course

This chapter reports on a three-year project to study to improve student outcomes in an introductory statistics course. Collaboration with a language expert led to the introduction of a variety of student-centred activities during the course. Some were online such as matching terms to definitions and multiple choice quizzes. Some were face-to-face such as the introduction of a student response system (commonly known as clickers). Results show a small but significant increase in grades following the introduction of these two interventions. A meta-analysis of research into the use of clickers was also conducted. This shows a small but significant increase in exam marks for students who used clickers in class. A Statistics Concept Inventory (SCI) was also used to assess students' understanding of the course concepts. The usefulness of the SCI was partially supported, as many questions were better answered by more able students. The SCI was also used to assess retention from one semester to another. Again, the usefulness of the SCI is partially supported, in that students who remembered more of their introductory statistics study did better in a second statistics course.