Proposal for a Web-based course in Fundamentals of Business Statistics

University Summer Teaching Development Award Application

Title Page

Print, complete, and return 16 copies to University Teaching Council, 672-2312

Date: February 5, 2003

Name: Murali Shanker

Department/School: M&IS, College of Business

Campus: Kent

Rank: Associate Professor Full Time: Yes

Telephone: 330 672 1165 Fax: 330 672 2953 E-Mail: mshanker@kent.edu

Address: Department of M&IS, College of Business, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242

Project Title: A Multiple Perspective Approach to Course Development

Signature: _____________________________

Introduction and Goals

Increasingly, there is need to find better and more efficient ways of transferring knowledge. The global marketplace, decreasing communication distances, increasing costs, and targeted audiences are some examples precipitating such needs. Today, technology, coupled with sound teaching principles, provides us with tools to address these needs.

Efficiency of knowledge transfer can be viewed from at least three viewpoints: the teacher, the student, and the administrator. From the teacher's perspective, the primary objective is to provide students with a learning environment that leads to better and sustained transfer of knowledge. The student, on the other hand, requires a learning environment that is tuned to his or her learning style for the knowledge transfer to be efficient. In most cases, efficiency of knowledge transfer from the administrator's perspective is usually to do with the cost of knowledge transfer. These three perspectives, in many cases, have been mutually exclusive. Thankfully, technological advancements, in addition to better understanding of leaning behavior, now provide opportunities to simultaneously improve the efficiency of knowledge transfer from all perspectives.

The primary goal for this proposal is to create a course that addresses this multi-perspective view. The Fundamentals of Business Statistics course (M&IS24056) will be used for this purpose. The long-term goal of this project is to develop a framework under which new course development can be done more efficiently.

The next section briefly describes the Fundamentals of Business Statistics course.

Fundamentals of Business Statistics (M&IS24056)

The Fundamentals of Business Statistics course is an introduction to concepts in statistical methods and their applications to real-world problems. This course examines both the theoretical and practical side of the different methods, and students are given ample opportunities to apply the techniques to various problems. The goal of this course is for students to think critically about data, and examine how statistical analyses play a role in decision making. The current syllabus for Fundamentals of Business Statistics can be found at http://www.personal.kent.edu/~mshanker/mis24056/Html/Syllabus_24056.htm.

This course is open to all majors, and is required of all students in Business. The current yearly enrollment on the Kent Campus is approximately 800 (Fall, Spring, and Summer sessions). Normally, two sections of the course are offered during the Fall and Spring semesters, with a maximum enrollment of 170 students in each section. For the last few years, this course has also been offered as a web course. The enrollment for the web course has varied from 30 to 100 per semester. The only prerequisite for this course is Math 11011 (Algebra). Future plans include offering the course as an LER.

In the last nine years, this course has undergone significant changes in content and delivery.

Shifting from small sections (less than 40) to large sections (currently 170).
Providing a broader, but more applicable perspective of applying statistics in the real world, compared to a more extensive review of statistical methods as in the past. Being an introductory course, a broader perspective with applications is more relevant from a learning standpoint.
Providing an in-class as well as an online medium for learning. Over the past 18 months, I have slowing added to the resources available online. Students can currently do the following on the web: access the course book, take quizzes, take examinations, access a searchable glossary, and listen to lectures that are comprised of audio and animation. In addition, students can upload homework and presentations, and communicate via e-mail, bulletin boards, chat, and whiteboard. This dual instruction mode provides students with additional and different perspectives for learning.
Class time is now devoted to a mix of lectures, group discussion, and in-class problem solving. Increasingly, especially with the availability of online audio lectures, class time is being used to analyze, dissect, and solve real-world problems.

The next section discusses the multiple perspectives of knowledge transfer using the Statistics course as an example.

Efficiency of Knowledge Transfer

Teacher's Perspective

The objective of teaching remains the same, which is “how to provide students with a better learning environment for understanding and applying statistical methods to making decisions?” To be able to accomplish this objective, it is important to understand from a teacher's perspective some of the characteristics and limitations of the Statistics course as it is currently offered.

A class size of 170 necessitates in most cases that examinations and quizzes be multiple choice. Multiple choice examinations, even when carefully written, are usually more a test of recognition rather than of learning. Thus, a good test score does not necessarily reflect critical statistical thinking on the part of the student.
With a wide range of student majors and backgrounds, the emphasis and examples of this course are broad based. While this makes it palpable for a wide audience, it impedes a more critical understanding of the subject. This has implications for all subsequent classes.
Large classes by their nature never fully succeed in providing a learning environment to capture 100% of the class. The pace and depth is either too slow, or too fast for many students. This course currently does try to compensate for this deficiency by providing extensive supplemental online materials, including audio lectures and interactive exercises.
The lack of small lab sections imply that practical demonstrations of statistical concepts have to be done in rooms with 170 students (not for the faint of heart), or accomplished by some other means. Much effort has been spent creating interactive demonstrations that can done by the students. This of course replaces the interaction between students by the interaction between student and computer. See http://www.personal.kent.edu/~mshanker/mis24056/LDI/ldi8_4.htm as an example.

Over the past three years, the Statistics course has undergone major revisions to address many of the above concerns. A substantial amount of material is now provided online and on CD so that students can proceed at their own pace through the course. Interactive exercises, online exams and quizzes, and practical demonstrations have all been added. The objective has been to provide different views of the same material with the hope that every student will be able to use at least some of the material to improve his or her learning of the subject. Surveys conducted over the last two years indicate that this approach has been extremely beneficial, especially in addressing points 3) and 4) above. Concerns still remain about points 1) and 2) though.

Students' Perspective

From an individual student viewpoint, the objective is simple: “that the course content, delivery, and tools, be geared towards the student's individualized learning style.” Given the large class sizes, and the varied learning styles, this has posed a problem for the Statistics class. While the extensive revisions of the last three years have helped alleviate some of these concerns, it is impossible to completely duplicate the one-to-one atmosphere of teaching and learning. But, today, students can listen to audio and video lectures at home, take exams at more convenient locations, or have flexibility in turning in assignments. Such judicious use of technology has worked well for many students whose life demands require more flexible arrangements than a strict classroom interaction. This provides an alternative view of knowledge transfer.

One major concern still remains. The broad-based approach of the current class puts students who require a greater in-depth understanding of statistics at a disadvantage. For example, Finance and Economics major students not only require critical statistical reasoning, as provided by the class, but they are also expected to understand the theoretical foundations for some of the main concepts (not currently provided). Offering additional or smaller classes, while a remedy, are in today's fiscal climate, not always feasible. Thus, improving knowledge transfer from a student's perspective also requires that we accommodate multiple learning objectives. In a traditional classroom environment, this would have been done through honor classes, for example.

Administrator's Perspective

Being able to offer a course geared towards a large and wide variety of audiences at a low cost, would, I presume, be an administrator's dream. The potential cost saving is a key factor in offering distance-learning courses. My limited experience with developing a self-contained web course suggests otherwise. It took more than 18 months to completely develop a web course, compared to a few months for the same course offered in only the classroom. My experiences suggest that some technologies and strategies are more effective than others. Part of this proposal is to document and develop a framework under which new course development could be accelerated. By noting the synergy between technological tools and learning objectives from multiple perspectives, future course development could be made more efficient.

Procedure and Timeline

This proposal calls for creating a course that addresses course development from each of the above three perspectives. Such a course would by necessity be adaptive, interactive, and self-contained. By adaptive, we refer to the capability that the course could be modified for different audiences and objectives. For example, a student majoring in Finance finds the course as relevant and useful as a student majoring in Fashion. By interactive, we refer to the learning and teaching style that engages the student to discover the knowledge and reasoning behind the concepts presented. Clearly this type of instruction enhances the understanding and retention of the subject matter. Self-contained implies that the course contains not only all the instructional materials, but also tools to test and assess student learning.

Thus, the procedures to create such a course will have the following steps:

How should the course be presented? Much of work of the last three years has concentrated on this. The overall design is completed. Repeated survey results have indicated that the interface is practical and conducive to learning. The main page can be viewed at http://www.personal.kent.edu/~mshanker/mis24056/Index.htm.
How should the course be organized? Much of this is also complete. The course is organized into two related parts. The instructional material, i.e., audio lectures, interactive exercises, and class notes, can be found at http://www.personal.kent.edu/~mshanker/mis24056/Index.htm. The assessment tools, i.e., examinations, quizzes, and projects, are password protected and offered through WebCT at http://class.kent.edu.
What course materials should be included? Currently, the course contains audio and animated lectures, online quizzes and examinations, interactive exercises and demonstrations. In its current form, the course is not adaptive, but is interactive. That is, it cannot satisfy multiple learning objectives, but does provide an interactive environment for learning. The current syllabus can be found at http://www.personal.kent.edu/~mshanker/mis24056/Html/Syllabus_24056.htm.
What is required to make the course adaptive? To make the course adaptive, course specific modules need to be created. For example, a Finance module would not only use more examples from Finance, but may also go more in-depth into the statistical concepts. Similarly, multiple learning objectives can also be addressed in this manner. Initially, only major specific modules will be created.
What is required to make the course interactive? Much of this is done. The course currently offers several interactive exercises and demonstrations. Students have appreciated these interactive exercises.
What is required to make the course self-contained? While the course currently can be described as self-contained, a major flaw remains. The assessment procedures rely on multiple choice questions. As mentioned previously, good performance on multiple-choice examinations do not necessarily reflect critical reasoning. While it is hard to envision creating a self-contained course without multiple choice (unless we develop really smart robots), it is possible to introduce computer adaptive testing (CAT) as a a means of assessment. CAT is based on Item Response Theory, a statistical framework that describes students by a set of ability scores that are predicted based on mathematical models linking actual performance on test items, item statistics, and students' abilities. Given the right test bank, CAT can be much more efficient than classical paper-and-pencil tests. As CAT iteratively estimates performance, it is possible to administer tests tailored towards specific concepts more efficiently.
What are the measures used for evaluating the course? Data collection is an integral part of evaluation. For the past few years, several surveys per semester have been given to the students to assess progress and viewpoints. This will continue. Based on pre and post test surveys, class performance, and student evaluation of instruction data, analysis will be done to examine the relevance of the different facets of the course. Hopefully, a framework will emerge from this indicting strategies that have been successful in knowledge transfer.

Having spent more than 18 months developing the current online content, I realize that developing an adaptive, interactive, and self-contained course takes time. Specifically, for this course, it is necessary to address items 4) and 6) above. That is, develop major specific modules, and develop a CAT assessment procedure. Both are substantial undertakings. Then, I hope to develop a framework that will identify the techniques and strategies that make knowledge transfer more efficient. While the latter is not part of my proposal, it is the driving force, because I believe that for future course development to be feasible (time, money), it is important to understand what works, and what doesn't. That is my goal.

Applicability of the Project

In today's world of looming budget cuts, and diverse student profiles, it is important to find efficient ways of transferring knowledge. Technology can play a significant role in this, but only if used wisely. But, to date, many of the success stories using technology have been because of the interest of individual investigators. While the development of this course falls into the same category, my goal is for future course development. By identifying the strategies and technological tools that lead to successful knowledge transfer from multiple perspectives, I hope to create a framework for more efficient course development. Using Fundamentals of Business Statistics as an example allows me to concentrate on identifying techniques that work on a subject that I am familiar with.

Thus, the applicability of the project can be defined on two dimensions. The immediate implications are that this course can be provided to a wider audience, with more flexibility. For example, it can be offered as distance learning, web based, or classroom based. The second, more wider, implications are that it will provide a framework to reduce future course development time. This framework should be applicable to any course with similar objectives, or for instructors desiring to know the synergy between technology, teaching, and learning.

Evaluation

Several forms of data are being collected. Among others,

Student performance: This course has eight online quizzes, six examinations, and two projects.
Student access to resources: Detailed access information (time, duration, time of first access, etc.) is being collected for each student. This will highlight the relative importance of the various resources at the student level.
Student evaluations: Several different surveys are given during the semester. Part of these surveys have been created at Flashlight (http://ctlsilhouette.ctlt.wsu.edu). As Flashlight is used nationwide, it is possible to compare the performance at Kent with similar schools across the country.
Student tracking: Most students are in their freshmen or sophomore years when they take this course. As such, it is possible to evaluate the effectiveness of this course in the later semesters, as statistics is a large part of many Business courses.
Peer evaluation: For the last few years, I have had some of my colleagues sit in on my classes and participate in the interactive exercises to evaluate their effectiveness. Some of the changes to this course are a result of that.
Past information: As I have taught this course for several years, I have many years of student data readily available for comparison.

The above measures are constantly being examined. As such, it is possible to conduct extensive analysis to examine and determine the effectiveness of the different facets of the course.

Communication of the Results

I fully intend to communicate the results of this project. At the end of this semester, I will be writing scholarly papers to publish the results of my experience so far. Given that using technology with learning and teaching is still a nascent field, this presents a unique opportunity. Every June, I also attend the national conference on Making Statistics More Effective in Schools of Business, which primarily deals with teaching statistics. I intend to communicate my results there too. Regardless of whether I get the summer grant or not (I do hope I get it), I would be happy to share my findings. I believe that a multi-perspective approach to knowledge transfer presents some interesting challenges, but in the long run, leads to more effective ways of teaching.