Interactive web applications (or apps), such as the Rossman-Chance collection, are popular tools for teaching statistics because they help illustrate fundamental concepts such as randomness, sampling, and variability through dynamic visualizations. The StatKey collection of apps created for the Lock5 textbook series to demonstrate and perform simulation-based inference is another example1. Historically, despite the utility... Continue Reading →
Tips and Tricks for Online Courses: A Q&A with Instructional Designers
In the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, we have a group called the Office of e-Learning Services (ELS) that works closely with instructors who teach fully online. The model we use here is working collaboratively and often with instructional designers in ELS to design our online courses. We (the instructors) are... Continue Reading →
Making Awesome Tables and Figures Using Gestalt Principles
It was late October in Minnesota, a perfect time for a swim in a local lake! At least, so thought a biology professor at our university (I’ll call him Dr. Doe). This chilly excursion dislodged an idea in his mind: what is the relationship between the body temperature recovery at different areas of the body... Continue Reading →
Specifications-Grading: An Overview
Motivation What is the least enjoyable part about being a professor? For me, the answer is easily “grading.” For years I dreaded the whole process – determining whether a response was worth 4 points or 5, ensuring consistency across students, and arguing over partial credit instead of discussing course content. Opposite this dread was the knowledge that one... Continue Reading →
Icebreakers! (not the gum)
To start off this post, it’s probably fitting to quote a Duran Duran song (1990): “The lasting first impression is what you're looking for.” Besides starting with the usual housekeeping on the first day of class, why not set the tone for the course by providing students with a glimpse into the classroom environment as... Continue Reading →
Slack for (A)synchronous Course Communication
You might have heard of Slack before. But what is it? Is it email? Is it a chat room? Slack describes their flagship product as a “collaboration hub that can replace email to help you and your team work together seamlessly.” In this blogpost, we’ll describe how we’ve been using Slack for asynchronous course communication,... Continue Reading →