Assessment Question Type in a Statistics Course for Non Majors: Analysis of Students’ Preference

This study involves the analysis of students’ preference on the Assessment Question Type (AQT) in an applied statistics course for non majors. Developing interest in a statistics course may be greatly influenced by performance in statistics courses taken earlier or expectations on the one being considered. It is important that assessment of the students’ performance in the course be through a valid evaluation tool which includes appropriate question type. Students’ AQT preference information was obtained using an instrument designed for the purpose and was shown to vary mostly between multiple choice and essay questions. Proportion of scores from multiple choice questions in the final examination was modeled with beta regression. Students’ level of understanding of the course (as judged by the total score in the examination) was shown to influence proportion of marks from the two AQT employed. Implications of the results were discussed.