Project Investigator(s): Eugenia Yu, Senior Instructor, Department of Statistics, Nancy Heckman, Professor, Department of Statistics, Bruce Dunham, Professor of Teaching, Department of Statistics , Caitlin Donnelly, Lecture, Botany
Project Description
The Flexible Learning Introductory Statistics (FLIS) project is a multi-disciplinary, cross-faculty collaboration between UBC statistics instructors, focused on the development of instructional resources. We have created three instructional videos and devised multiple-choice questions to accompany the videos, with the aim of enhancing student learning and facilitating formative assessment. We propose to assess if and how the placement of questions within videos impacts student learning, by developing versions of the videos with different question placement. Student learning will be assessed by performance on pre- and post-tests and by student feedback.
Research Questions
We would like to determine how, if at all, the use and placement of questions within a video impacts short- and long-term student learning. Specifically, we will compare the following: (i) placing questions throughout the video (testing concepts when they are first mentioned), (ii) placing questions towards the end of a video (testing multiple concepts after students engage with the entire video), (iii) providing all questions before the video begins (allowing students to determine when they will answer questions) and (iv) providing no questions. Situation (iv) would be used in lab-based studies only, so as not to affect student grades.
Impact on teaching and learning at UBC
This project has the potential to enhance learning in introductory statistics courses in multiple UBC departments. If successful, this project will provide insight into how best to enhance instructional videos with questions, improving the effectiveness of videos as learning tools. This may help instructors to better develop interactive instructional videos, and to make existing material more effective for use in their courses. The addition of questions to existing and future instructional videos will also impact student learning beyond UBC, as the videos are openly available on StatSpace for use by statistics instructors and students.