The Web-based ARTIST Project

University Of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Abstract

This project develops Web-based resources for first courses in statistics, called the Assessment Resource Tools for Improving Statistical Thinking (ARTIST). The Web ARTIST project produces the following products: + A collection of high quality assessment items and tasks, coded according to content (e.g., normal distribution, measures of center, bivariate data) and type of cognitive outcome (e.g., statistical literacy, reasoning, or thinking). + A Website that contains the assessment items and tasks, provides online testing, offers guidelines for using the assessment items/tasks in various ways, and allows for the collection and compilation of data for research and evaluation purposes. + Faculty development workshops and mini-courses to encourage and assist statistics instructors in how to use the assessment resources to improve student learning, improve their courses, and evaluate course outcomes. + A comprehensive test that measures desired outcomes of a first course in statistics. The ARTIST Web site includes a variety of item formats and types of performance assessments. Instructors have a centralized resource to help them better evaluate student attainment of particular outcomes, rather than global measures of achievement. Specifically, outcomes to evaluate include statistical literacy (e.g., understanding words and symbols, being able to read and interpret graphs and terms), statistical reasoning (e.g., reasoning with statistical information, using statistics to make predictions or judgment), and statistical thinking (e.g., the type of thinking that statisticians use when solving problems that involve data, such as choosing appropriate procedures and checking assumptions).