Employment of new technical platforms for interactively visualizing statistical methods and statistical data

Abstract

For a long time, classical media for learning and teaching, such as textbooks and teacher-centred instruction, have been complemented by e-learning components and virtual campus systems. Smartphones and tablets have impressive functionality, and are becoming ubiquitous. There is an urgent need to create resources that will run on these platforms, so that educators are providing resources that run on the tools that students actually use. This paper illustrates how an extended media mix can broaden the scope of statistics and further education. Two complementary approaches are described. The first approach is tailor- made for desktop applications (repository containing interactive Java) whereas the second one is fully platform-independent (statistics app containing interactive learning objects based on HTLM5, CSS3 and JavaScript). The layout of the learning objects belonging to the statistics app is automatically adapted to the size of the viewing environment (responsive web design). The output of both approaches can be embedded in different educational settings, for example as a complement to face-to-face-lecturing or as a supplement to printed textbooks.