My colleague, Dr. Janie Busby Grant, and I have been conducting some very interesting research into the use of Videos for Teaching Statistics in Psychology. We will be presenting this research as a poster at the 2015 ISSOTL conference. The Abstract is as follows – look for us at the conference poster exhibition!

Accessible Information anytime, anywhere: The intentional use of videos in Psychology for learning and reducing statistical anxiety

(Short title: The Intentional Use of Videos for Teaching Statistics in Psychology)

Karin Oerlemans, University of Canberra
Janie Busby Grant, Centre for Applied Psychology, University of Canberra

Abstract

Psychology at UC has undergone a substantial change recently, particularly a move to flexible course delivery. The recipients of grant funding, and academics embraced the opportunity to review unit content, adopted technologies, and drew on the support of teaching and learning specialists. In 2013, the psychology statistics lecturer (the second author), seeking advice from one of the T&L specialist (first author), incorporated a number of vodcasts into the unit, utilising a combination of lecture-based, enhanced and worked examples (Kay, 2012), scaffolding the learning, but also with the aim of reducing some of the anxiety students expressed around learning statistics and the SPSS software package. The mid-semester feedback was overwhelmingly positive. When an improvement in final unit results, particularly at the top end of the grade scale, was noted, the decision was made to investigate the reasons for the students’ positive engagement with the unit’s core learning materials.

This poster presents the initial findings of the 2014 study exploring how the use of vodcasts may have positively impacted students’ use of SPSS and reduced statistics anxiety. Researchers surveyed the students, using a before-after design within one semester. The study also drew on other de-identified data such as unit results and Moodle access data, comparing 2014 with previous years, to understand students’ use of the vodcasts and other tools and see if and how they were linked to the improved results.

It has been noted in the literature that there is a substantial lack of evidence-based practice in higher education’s use of technology. Price and Kirkwood (2014) found that whilst the adoption of technology for use in teaching and learning was widespread, the effectiveness of its use was “open to question” and that much evidence for use was based on case study data and anecdotal data of past practice that had worked. By using a before-after design, it is hoped to collect more rigorous data and aid our understanding of the use of vodcasts to support the improvement in flexible delivery of teaching and learning in higher education.


Read the full study here:

Busby-Grant, J. & Oerlemans, K. 2022). Accessibility and support for online learners in Psychology: A case study of the use of videos to reduce statistical anxiety. In International Perspectives on Online Instruction, J. Hoffman & P. Blessinger (Eds.). Bradford, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.

You can read the poster content here

ISSOTL 2015 Poster Presentation

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