Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching - National University

about a textbook for such courses, written by a recognized author. The advantages of such book
over a custom text are obvious.
From Asynchronous to Synchronous Method of Teaching
Introduction of the “virtual classroom” method will significantly enrich the instructor’s toolkit.
In particular, it will make possible group work, which, in turn, can make the learning process
active, and therefore more efficient, as stated by Lee and Famoye (2006). Besides, oral
communication with the instructor can benefit students who acquire information better by
hearing than by reading.
The class meetings hardly need to be like full-scale lectures. The instructor needs to
cover the most important issues and/or answer questions, leaving the rest for independent work.
Of course, in order to attend a virtual classroom, each student must have the appropriate
equipment and know how to use it. It should be kept in mind that synchronous teaching methods
lack the flexibility of the current online teaching. Therefore, the latter must remain available as
an option.
Conclusion
Online mathematics classes, especially statistics classes, are becoming more and more popular.
The online Introduction to Probability and Statistics course has proved its viability and
effectiveness. Many students have stated that they learned much in this class.
To estimate the results achieved by the student, we need to distinguish between the
immediate outcomes and the long-term skills. The immediate outcomes placed in the list of
terminal course objectives are tested by the formal course assessment tools. The long-term skills
retained by former successful students include but are not limited to the following:
• Perceive and interpret statistical information coming from the work documentation and
from mass media
• Select trustworthy sources of information
• Use the concepts of mean and standard deviation
• Understand the probabilistic nature of insurance, gambling, etc.
• Understand and interpret interval estimate, including the concept of margin of error in
various polls
• Understand the concept of statistical significance
We believe that the suggestions offered above will help the instructor increase the level of
efficiency of his/her teaching of elementary statistics in the virtual classroom.
References
Larson, R. (2006) Elementary statistics, picturing the world (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2006.
Lee C., & Famoye, F. (2006). Teaching statistics using a real time online database created by students, ICOTS-7.
Mitry, D. J., & Smith, D. E. (2009). The search for student and faculty online authenticity, Journal of Research and
Innovative Teaching, 2 (1), PAGE NUMBERS NEEDED.
192