Journal of Education & Social Policy

Teaching Undergraduate Social Statistics Online: A Classroom Assessment of Instructional Interventions to
Reduce Statistics Anxiety and Facilitate Student Success Allison R. Reagan

Abstract
Instructional interventions for teaching introductory social statistics courses online differ from those used when teaching in traditional on-campus courses. Despite the expansion in online course offerings to accommodate the high rate of university sociology programs which require social statistics to graduate, a gap exists in scholarship regarding empirically-based recommendations for effective pedagogical online course design and implementation strategies. In this manuscript, I describe my experiences teaching and creating undergraduate social statistics courses designed to minimize student challenges for learning statistics online by incorporating innovative pedagogical strategies and interventions. Additionally, I report students’ perceptions of the usefulness of the pedagogical course design strategies and instructional interventions in reducing their statistics anxiety and success in learning course material. The data for this qualitative classroom assessment was collected from six sections of online undergraduate introductory-level social statistics courses. The results can guide online instructors, researchers, and course designers.

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