Fall 2000 Seminar Series - November 16, 2000
University of Minnesota
School of Statistics
College of Liberal Arts
The Penn State Model for the Beginning Statistics Course
William L. Harkness
Professor of Statistics
Penn State University
Thursday, November 16, 2000
4:00 PM, 207
Vincent Hall
Minneapolis, East Bank Campus
Social at 3:30 PM,
300
Ford Hall
Abstract
For many years the course structure for our beginning general
service level statistics course involved a standard three or four
lectures and one or two recitations, per week. This is generally
what is done at most large universities across the U.S. It required
four instructors and 12 teaching assistants to teach about 1000 students
per semester. Beginning this Fall Semester we changed the course drastically,
almost beyond recognition. We have redesigned the course (a) to make it more
interactive and hands-on for the students, b) with one large group meeting per
week (and very little lecturing) and two meetings per week in a computer lab,
(c) putting a substantial emphasis on collaborative group work by the students,
(d) using both a printed text and web-based materials, (e) employing a variety
of quizzing that most of you probably have never heard of, (f) with a radical
change in course sequencing and philosophy, and (g) in a way that is saving lots
of money for the department.
We received a grant from the Center for Academic Transformation of the Pew
Foundation to do the restructuring and worked hard during the past year to
implement the change. We are now at about the thirteenth week of the semester
and have learned a lot about how the new system works and what doesnąt work.
In this presentation, I will spell out the details of what we are doing, our
experience with it, and perceived student and faculty reactions to the changed
course.