IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/amstat/v69y2015i4p354-361.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Using Online Game-Based Simulations to Strengthen Students’ Understanding of Practical Statistical Issues in Real-World Data Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Shonda Kuiper
  • Rodney X. Sturdivant

Abstract

Datasets provided to students are typically carefully chosen and vetted to illustrate a key statistical topic or method. Rarely are real studies and data so straightforward. In addition, carefully curated datasets that are brought into the statistics classroom may not feel realistic to students. We provide several examples of online activities where students can quickly collect their own local data, have input on the goals of the study and draw their own conclusions. These activities focus on core statistical issues that are often challenging to teach with traditional textbooks, such as working with messy data, bias, data relevance, and reliability. This approach to teaching integrates the challenges of data in a way that encourages students to see how easy it can be to inadvertently draw misleading conclusions. These activities are designed to be highly adaptable and have proven effective in a wide variety of introductory and advanced undergraduate courses.[Received December 2014. Revised July 2015.]

Suggested Citation

  • Shonda Kuiper & Rodney X. Sturdivant, 2015. "Using Online Game-Based Simulations to Strengthen Students’ Understanding of Practical Statistical Issues in Real-World Data Analysis," The American Statistician, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 69(4), pages 354-361, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:amstat:v:69:y:2015:i:4:p:354-361
    DOI: 10.1080/00031305.2015.1075421
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00031305.2015.1075421
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00031305.2015.1075421?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Gould, 2010. "Statistics and the Modern Student," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 78(2), pages 297-315, August.
    2. Karyl Whitman & Anthony M. Starfield & Henley S. Quadling & Craig Packer, 2004. "Sustainable trophy hunting of African lions," Nature, Nature, vol. 428(6979), pages 175-178, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Roger W. Hoerl & Ronald D. Snee, 2017. "Statistical Engineering: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?," The American Statistician, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 71(3), pages 209-219, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paul J Funston & Rosemary J Groom & Peter A Lindsey, 2013. "Insights into the Management of Large Carnivores for Profitable Wildlife-Based Land Uses in African Savannas," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-8, March.
    2. Vivienne L Williams & Andrew J Loveridge & David J Newton & David W Macdonald, 2017. "Questionnaire survey of the pan-African trade in lion body parts," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-35, October.
    3. Nicholas Jon Horton, 2016. "Discussion: Making Progress in a Crowded Market," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 84(2), pages 179-181, August.
    4. Irena Ograjenšek & Iddo Gal, 2016. "Enhancing Statistics Education by Including Qualitative Research," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 84(2), pages 165-178, August.
    5. Oksana Revutskaya & Galina Neverova & Efim Frisman, 2024. "Discrete-Time Model of an Exploited Population with Age and Sex Structures: Instability and the Hydra Effect," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-28, February.
    6. Heejoo Suh & Sohyung Kim & Seonyoung Hwang & Sunyoung Han, 2020. "Enhancing Preservice Teachers’ Key Competencies for Promoting Sustainability in a University Statistics Course," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-21, October.
    7. Wiederholt, Ruscena & Fernandez-Duque, Eduardo & Diefenbach, Duane R. & Rudran, Rasanayagam, 2010. "Modeling the impacts of hunting on the population dynamics of red howler monkeys (Alouatta seniculus)," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 221(20), pages 2482-2490.
    8. Nicholas J. Horton, 2015. "Challenges and Opportunities for Statistics and Statistical Education: Looking Back, Looking Forward," The American Statistician, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 69(2), pages 138-145, May.
    9. Oksana Zhdanova & Alexey Kuzin & Efim Frisman, 2022. "The Harvest Effect on Dynamics of Northern Fur Seal Population: Mathematical Modeling and Data Analysis Results," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(17), pages 1-24, August.
    10. Lisa Dierker & Jane Robertson Evia & Karen Singer-Freeman & Kristin Woods & Janet Zupkus & Alan Arnholt & Elizabeth G Moliski & Natalie Delia Deckard & Kristel Gallagher & Jennifer Rose, 2018. "Project-Based Learning in Introductory Statistics: Comparing Course Experiences and Predicting Positive Outcomes for Students from Diverse Educational Settings," International Journal of Educational Technology and Learning, Scientific Publishing Institute, vol. 3(2), pages 52-64.
    11. Scotland Leman & Leanna House & Andrew Hoegh, 2015. "Developing a New Interdisciplinary Computational Analytics Undergraduate Program: A Qualitative-Quantitative-Qualitative Approach," The American Statistician, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 69(4), pages 397-408, November.
    12. McLauchlan Cynthia & Schonlau Matthias, 2016. "Statistical Literacy in the Classroom: Should Introductory Statistics Courses Rethink their Goals?," Statistics, Politics and Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1-2), pages 99-115, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:amstat:v:69:y:2015:i:4:p:354-361. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/UTAS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.