New Zealand Statistical Association 2024 Conference

John Harraway

University of Otago

Motivational resources for training in statistics

Two sets of resources are discussed and links provided for both. The first set comprises 20 recent motivational case study videos about applications of statistics in research from many Otago departments. The videos can be located at:

https://www.stats.otago.ac.nz/research/Statistics-in-Research/

Data sets for each study are freely available and investigated using R to analyse the data, thus combining statistical ideas in current case studies and first experiences with coding at the same time in our large first year statistics class. The videos are being used in 60 countries. An invited paper at the ICOTS11 Conference (September 2022) in Argentina provides more detail.

The second set of resources comprises three apps for training in Official Statistics and can be found at:

https://iase-web.org/islp/Resources.php?p=Apps

These apps are interactive and free to use with concept discussion, references, and marked assessments. Indications are these are also being used in 60 countries.

Google docs are being developed for attaching to each video and each app in an attempt to identify exactly who is using these resources in each country, and how they are being used. For example, for training in the workforce, for teaching statistics and programming in the classroom, or for the statistics education of a population. All the material is open source and the resources can be used during Covid (for example), with access both online and in the classroom.