Technology Innovations in Statistics Education

Simulations can make complex ideas easier for students to visualize and understand. It has been shown that guidance in the use of these simulations enhances students’ learning. This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of the Independent Interactive Inquiry-based (I³) Learning Modules, which use existing open-source Java applets, combined with audio-visual instruction. Students are guided to discover and visualize important concepts in post-calculus and algebra-based courses in probability and statistics. Topics include the binomial distribution, confidence intervals, significance testing, and randomization. We show that this format can be used independently by students at the introductory and advanced levels. The percentage of students answering correctly on posttests was larger than that for pretests for three of the four modules described.