Computer Supported Collaborative Learning of Statistics

In teaching statistics (2008-2011) at the Australian Catholic University, it was observed that students failed to grasp certain elementary concepts reducing comprehension of advanced concepts as the course progressed. It was evident that a paradigm change was necessary to seek optimisation of the learning environment. Use of online learning is rapidly growing in statistics education. Yet research indicates there is a lack of empirical results, discussion and research on fundamental aspects of teaching and learning of statistics online. Computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) was implemented, in the form of e discussion blog, to assist in teaching fundamental concepts of statistics. The results indicated that the use of CSCL was more likely with previous knowledge of the specific topic (p<0.05) as opposed to general course subject knowledge. This was a paradoxical finding with those that potentially stood to benefit most from learning more about the specific topic least likely to participate (p<0.05). It was found that, for those posting in the blog, there was improved performance in related questions (p<0.001) as well as the subject as a whole (p<0.05). It was not necessary to post in the blog, with those only reading and not posting in the blog also benefiting from its use by an amount that was not statistically distinguishable. However, the total amount of messages read and posted did correlate with performance in both related areas (p<0.001) and the rest of the subject (p<0.05). CSCL was effective as a learning tool, however those requiring most assistance utilized it least.