R. Webster West Integrated Analytics LLC Texas A&M University Applets abound Applets are small Web-based interactive programs written typically in Java or Flash. To steal.
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Transcript R. Webster West Integrated Analytics LLC Texas A&M University Applets abound Applets are small Web-based interactive programs written typically in Java or Flash. To steal.
R. Webster West
Integrated Analytics LLC
Texas A&M University
Applets abound
Applets are small Web-based interactive programs
written typically in Java or Flash.
To steal a phrase from Apple, “Pick a statistical topic
and there is an applet for that.”
There is a great deal of variation in terms of quality and
in terms of how applets are used within courses, but a
fair question to ask is:
“What does the average student really get out of using applets?”
A confidence interval applet
http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~west/ph/meanci.html
Questions about this applet
Do students really understand how to manipulate the
underlying data structure using the applet’s widgets?
How much instructor guidance is required? Can
students use the applet on their own?
Should the applet presentation be followed with an
exercise?
Can students comprehend the large number of
educational objectives targeted by the applet?
Other approaches
Would a programmatic simulation written in a
language like R be a better way of teaching these
concepts?
Probably not. The typical student has no ability to
digest computer code, and they certainly can not
write their own code.
A few simple additions to the StatCrunch package
allows for a middle ground approach between the
mindless clicking and complex programming
alternatives.
The StatCrunch approach
Almost all StatCrunch procedures offer a Group By
option which makes it simple to compute/compare
results for different groups.
Two newer ingredients:
The ability to split and stack simulated data.
The ability to save results from numerous procedures to the
data table so that further computations are possible.
Add these items together and you have a powerful
recipe for doing pedagogical simulations in StatCrunch.
Today’s StatCrunch demo
A confidence interval simulation in StatCrunch
A short glimpse at future capabilities
Other possible StatCrunch simulations:
Sampling distributions and the CLT
Hypothesis testing
Sampling distributions of regression estimates
Resampling