Statistical Literacy as a Function of Online Versus Hybrid Course Delivery Format for an Introductory Graduate Statistics Course

Abstract

Statistical literacy refers to understanding fundamental statistical concepts. Assessment of statistical literacy can take the forms of tasks that require students to identify, translate, compute, read, and interpret data. In addition, statistical instruction can take many forms encompassing course delivery format such as face-to-face, hybrid, online, video capture, and flipped. In this study, we examined statistical literacy of graduate students using a validated assessment tool (the Comprehensive Assessment of Outcomes in Statistics; CAOS) across two increasingly popular delivery formats—hybrid and online. In addition, we examined condensed (six week) semesters to full (16 week) semesters to determine if course length was related to statistical literacy. Our findings suggest that, holding other factors constant, delivery format is not related to statistical literacy for graduate students. This contradicts some existing research that shows hybrid delivery outperforms online only. Our results have important implications for the teaching of statistics as well as for graduate education overall.

Keywords

• Hybrid format
• Introductory statistics
• Mixed-mode
• Multilevel model
• Online learning