ONLINE STATISTICS E-LEARNING RESOURCE FOR STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Many undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses require use of statistical methods to analyse and interpret data sets. The extent to which 'statistics' are a main topic of study varies greatly with degree subject, yet knowledge, understanding and appropriate uses of statistics are either essential or highly desirable across most of the sciences and social sciences. It is frequently observed that students attending post-graduate degree courses, in particular, vary widely in their prior knowledge, confidence and expertise with statistics, hence the requirement for resources that students can access independently to refresh or acquire the skills necessary for their courses. For many students, learning statistics is neither easy nor intuitive nor popular. Designed with a focus strongly on developing an intuitive understanding of statistics, 'Statistics - an Intuitive Introduction' (SII) is an e-learning resource developed at the University of Nottingham and freely accessible via the internet. It teaches students the basics of statistical techniques in a stand-alone, easy-to-use and intuitive way. It is envisaged that SII will be a useful, general resource for students in higher education, both within the University of Nottingham and beyond. This paper presents a summary of recent development of SII, focusing in particular on features developed to support use of the resource for both formative and summative assessment of student understanding.