This paper is from Session 9D: E-learning, E-teaching and E-assessment in fully online, blended and open virtual web-based courses

which comes under Topic 9: Technology in statistics education

Experiences teaching an introductory statistics MOOC

Presenter

• Alison Gibbs (University of Toronto, Canada)

Abstract

Can a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) meet the needs of learners interested in introductory statistics? In the spring of 2013, Statistics: Making Sense of Data, an 8-week, non-calculus, introductory statistics course was taught on the Coursera platform, with over 60,000 learners enrolled while the course was taking place. The course was developed in response to a call for MOOCs focused on high-enrolment, low-success, general education courses. We describe the course, and summarize what we have learned so far from the data we collected about the learners, including what we know about who enrolled, their initial intentions, and how these are related to indicators of success in the course.