Introduction 

I teach statistics classes in the Mathematics and Statistics Department at Elon University.  The two classes I teach most often are MTH 112 (General Statistics) and MTH 212 (Statistics in Application).  Both of these classes are considered introductory statistics classes.  The mathematical and statistical background of the students in MTH 212 is usually higher compared to the MTH 112 students. 

Homework is assigned regularly in both of these classes.  It is important that students complete and understand the assigned homework, as similar questions from these assignments are likely to show up on quizzes and exams.  Also, if students complete class projects, they will be applying statistical procedures which they have practiced in homework assignments.  Instead of grading homework assignments, I usually give quizzes based on the homework.  In between the time when the homework assignment is assigned and when the quiz is given, I post online solutions to the homework.  It is important for students to pay attention to and understand these solutions so that they have a firm grasp of the material.  This is especially important in statistics classes, where much of the future material to be covered depends on having a firm grasp of the current material being studied.

My ETLP project is based on providing homework solutions which include an audio component.  There are various goals associated with this project, but the main purpose is to see if audio solutions are beneficial to students.  If so, then use of audio solutions in future statistics classes, and possibly even non-statistics classes, should be encouraged.  Some other goals associated with my project are given in the following list.

Goals of the Study

1.    Develop materials that will aid in student learning, especially when it comes to challenging and/or difficult topics is one main goal of this project.  

2.    Obtain useful feedback from students is another goal.  This includes gathering information on how students perceive audio solutions, whether they use these solutions, and what students think about them in terms of usefulness.

3.   Motivate students to spend their own time (non-class time) working on the material is not always an easy thing to do, especially when course concepts are challenging.  However, with the addition of audio to homework solutions, students will hopefully feel less intimidated to tackle statistical concepts that can be difficult to make sense of right away. 

4.   Look at whether there is any association between student views towards audio solutions and success in the course.

5.   Obtain some information on learning preferences of students.

Previous Studies

Audio feedback has been found to be beneficial in online courses, and these benefits may also extend to face-to-face courses.  A study using audio feedback with discussion boards was conducted in 2005 (Ice, P. et al., 2007).  The researchers of this study found that audio feedback was associated with feelings of increased involvement, increased retention of content, and the perception that the instructor cared more about the students. 

Also, audio can be especially useful when used to narrate diagrams, which often show up in statistical topics such as regression.  It has been shown that explaining diagrams with text is less effective than when diagrams are explained with audio (Clark et al., 2006).  This holds true for both static and animated diagrams.

References 

Ice, P., Swan, K., Kupczynski, L. & Richardson, J. (2008). The Impact of Asynchronous Audio Feedback on Teaching and Social Presence: A Survey of Current Research. In Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2008 (pp. 5646-5649). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.

Clark, Ruth & Nguyen, Frank, and Sweller, John.  (2006).  Efficiency in Learning: Evidence-Based Guidelines to Manage Cognitive Load.  Published by John Wiley & Sons.

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