It is widely recognised that it is beneficial to employ a variety of methods when assessing students. Since students have different strengths and different approaches to learning, the assessment process should give them opportunities to demonstrate their abilities and achieve the relevant learning outcomes. Also, different topics in statistics can require different assessment regimes. However, even for identical topics, non-specialist students of statistics specialising in a range of other subjects can require different teaching techniques, and consequently will need different assessment methods.
With these issues in mind, the ViSA miniproject, aimed to gather accounts of recent successful experiences in assessment of statistical learning at tertiary level, from around the world. Gal and Garfield’s book [1] addressed similar issues, although it covered all levels of education, whilst here the focus was tertiary level, which had seen many changes in the student intake and assessment methods in the previous ten years.
The discipline of statistics is ideally suited to providing a wide variety of assessment opportunities. For example, students can be asked to collect and analyse their own data; they can be set realistic problems to solve either individually or in groups; they can carry out simple experiments and simulations; they can focus on how to communicate the results of statistical analysis to a non-specialist audience either graphically, verbally or in writing; they can critique the study designs and analyses of others. Different methods of assessment are appropriate for different elements of the curriculum.
Over the last 20 years, there have been extraordinary advances in the field of multimedia computer technology and communications. The Internet has brought the world to peoples’ desktops, affording an almost boundless resource. Statistical software has greatly expanded the range of analyses that students can conduct almost instantaneously and this too has affected the assessment process.
The main focus of ViSA was a virtual international conference, with refereed proceedings to be published as a book in, ‘Assessment Methods in Statistical Education: An International Perspective’ (Wiley, ISBN 9780470745328). The book provides a modern, international perspective on assessing students of statistics in HE. It is a collection of contributions written by some of the leading figures in statistical education from around the world, drawing on their personal teaching experience and educational research. The book reflects the wide variety of disciplines, such as business, psychology and the health sciences, which include statistics teaching and assessment. The authors acknowledge the increasingly important role of technology in assessment, whether it be using the internet for accessing information and data sources or using software to construct and manage individualised or online assessments.
[1] Gal, I. and Garfield, J. Eds. (2007) ‘The Assessment Challenge in Statistics Education’, IOS Press.