Integrating Technology in a Statistics Course for a Special Program at Florida International University

A special undergraduate program for selected biology majors was recently inaugurated at Florida International University. The curriculum emphasizes science, mathematics, and statistics. A statistics course was implemented for this program integrating PowerPoint, statistical software (SPSS), and data from biological/biomedical studies. This didactic experience is discussed here. Statistics is often a difficult subject for many undergraduates taking introductory courses at college. Cobb (2005) considered that although the previous twenty five years had seen an extraordinary level of research activity focused on how students learn statistics and how teachers can be more effective in helping them to learn, today’s challenges are far greater than before. Thus, statistics education can still be viewed as a new and emerging discipline when compared to other areas of study (Garfield & Ben-Zvi, 2007). Among the principles of learning statistics, Garfield (1995) includes the active involvement of students in educational activities as well as learning by practicing. Using technology can make college teaching of statistics more effective as it improves the quality of instruction, encourages students’ active learning, and provides them with psychological incentives (Garfield, 1995; Higazi, 2002). In this regard, the use of PowerPoint and statistical software has been previously reported by Lock (2005) as a facilitator of learning statistics. The traditional approach to teaching statistics at the college level consists of using a board during lectures, a textbook as a reference, and supplementary material posted on a website. This present paper describes an observational study discussing whether the integration of technology resources that included the use of PowerPoint presentations and a personal computer based statistical software (SPSS) would increase student performance and satisfaction in an introductory statistics course. Method Students enrolled in this introductory statistics course were undergraduates from a special program in the biological sciences implemented at Florida International University (FIU) in the fall of 2007. This program will be described below, along with the Statistics I course used for this study. Quantifying Biology in the Classroom (QBIC) Quantifying Biology in the Classroom (QBIC) emphasizes the use of mathematics and statistics for analyses of biological/biomedical data. The inaugural class consisted of twenty five selected students, most of them Biology majors. The selection criteria included students’ SAT scores, high school GPAs, and letters of recommendation. The average SAT score, Mathematics and English combined, for these QBIC students was 1240 (Tashakkori, Reio, & Rincon, 2008). QBIC is a pilot program that intends to expose students to a more rigorous curriculum that is both interdisciplinary and quantitative in nature. The program integrates mathematics, statistics, and computing such that: (a) data generated in biology labs are used to illustrate