Impact of the use of the e-learning in the attitudes towards the statistics

In recent years researchers have shown renewed interest in the teaching methodologies that universities use in many of their courses. Within this general process, some authors are analysing the particular problem of subjects with significant quantitative content. Researchers are also investigating the question of students' attitudes and motivations with respect to subjects with statistical content - traditionally classed as "difficult" - and with respect to their learning processes. In parallel, learning in virtual environments has become a fundamental part of universities' educational offer. But there is still no consensus in the specialist literature about the efficacy of this new pedagogical approach. And apart from this debate about its utility, there has been little research into the potential effect of using elearning methods on students' attitude towards statistics, whether directly or through the modification of their study processes. The current work aims to analyse this final point. Following Bayot et al.' s (2005) methodological framework, the authors have presented one questionnaire measuring attitudes towards statistics, and another measuring attitudes towards study processes, to two groups of students, the first following a traditional methodology and the second a methodology based on a virtual environment. The results for attitude towards statistics indicate that the virtual methodology provides some improvement, but they are not statistically conclusive. In contrast, the results offer stronger evidence of differences in the case of the study processes, a finding that could contribute in part to explaining the differences in attitudes. Finally, this work concludes with a series of reflections about the teaching methodology used on the basis of the empirical evidence found here, an analysis of the limitations found, and a discussion about future lines of research.