Disrupting Learning of Statistics

Abstract

Saudi Arabia, with its deeply conservative yet rapidly changing society, has adopted an ambitious blueprint for the future in Vision 2030. One of its goals is to increase women's participation in the workforce from 22% to 30%. This case study focused on Saudi female undergraduates undertaking an introductory statistics course. With an emphasis on disruption and smart learning, the author created interventions and tracked changes in attitudes and perceptions of students towards statistics from the beginning to the end of the course. Reusable online resources in the form of a series of content and problem-solving videos were introduced as the semester progressed. At the same time, an appreciative inquiry approach was used to foster a positive change environment. An online forum was created to encourage student discussion and feedback throughout the semester, and anonymous course evaluations were conducted at the end of course. Qualitative and quantitative results are presented here.