The Use of Cast Tests and Exercises to Improve The Learning of Statistics at Tertiary Level of Education

Abstract

Statistics as a course has become a computerised teaching subject due to the changing needs of the students who often use computers to process, and analyse various data sets. Recent technological developments have led to the avai labi Iity of resources of the highest qual ity for Statistical teaching, including Computer Assisted Statistics Textbooks \CAST). The purpose of this study was to illustrate the added benefit of using an interactive quantitative method of teaching Statistics over the historical usual classroom teaching at the Kenya Institute of Management (KIM). As part of the objective, this study attempted to conduct educational experiments at different times with different students leading to a quantitative analysis where potential confounding effects are demonstrated and adds rigor to the study using convenient sampling without compromising student's education. This study was conducted at KIM over a period of nine months. Past results on Statistics course obtained by the students taught by researcher(Manyalla) and colleague teacher(Margaret) before CAST usage were compared with results obtained when CAST was used in the teaching of Statistics. A total of 167 students were investigated in this study as having used CAST or not. Out of these, 77 Statistics students were taught using CAST while 90 were taught with the use of the traditional method. An analysis of past Statistics' results data showed that the marks were on average about 10% higher than the average marks our students were getting before using CAST. Overall, the average mark for the 90 students who did not use CAST was 59%, and this was close to the national average of 57% in Statistics course. It was just over 70% for the 77 students who used CAST. Future studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of CAST for professional education and training in Statistics department from the various KIM branches and in other institutions where Statistics module is offered.