About the Short Course: 1 Day Course

​In many of the STEM units, technical skills and discipline knowledge are taught to students while soft skills usually are neglected. The aim of this workshop is to introduce how to design learning activities and assessments so that the core concepts in statistics can be integrated in the practical context of solving real research problems by the application of technical ideas and methods. Teaching statistics is challenging especially when the aim is to have an interactive class where students are active participants (experiential learners) to develop and improve their soft skills which are usually called employability skills such as oral and written communication, teamwork skills.

By using industry projects, it is possible to give students exposure to the general and discipline specific issues that arise in statistical work, and to provide an experiential background in consulting while they also develop their soft skills. In this workshop, I will present how consulting skills can be included into in face-to-face or online classes with carefully designed interactive activities: learning by doing, experiential learning. Specifically, I will provide examples of the learning activities and assessments for face-to-face and/or online classes.

In-Person Event. Location Of Short Courses: University of Ottawa

Who is this course for?

The target group for this short course are lecturers, school teachers, trainers and also researchers who want to develop students; knowledge and understanding required soft skills in industry e.g., communication skills both oral and written, ability work as a team member.

Level Of Instruction: Intermediate

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this workshop, participants will be able to
LO1: design activities to improve their students :
- oral communication skills;
- written communication skills;
- ability to work co-operatively as a team member;
- statistical thinking skills;
LO2: design assessments for such activities
LO3: design rubrics to assist assessments

Course Materials

Course materials include, but are not limited to, workshop notes, examples of assessments and examples of rubrics for assessments. Small group-based problem activity sessions will enable better understanding of possibilities and enable tailored design for each participant based on the limits in their institution. Giving you the spectrum of possibilities to design and implement such courses in your institution. It will also create opportunities for networking with like-minded peers to continue discussions beyond the short course.

Delivery Structure

The delivery will be a combination of introducing ideas and underlying literature in lecture format, interactive activities, discussions and questions and answers.

Knowledge Assumed

There is no prerequisite however experience with teaching or intention to develop course(s) for improving students’ employability skills will be a bonus.

About the instructor: Ayse Bilgin

BEng., MBA, MMaths, PhD, PostGradDip HE (L&T), MHE (L&M) Ayse is an Associate Professor in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at Macquarie University. She is the President of the International Association for Statistical Education (IASE) and an elected Member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI). Ayse’s research explores applications of statistics in health sciences and learning and teaching in statistics.

Ayse is an academic who uses her statistical knowledge to improve health and wellbeing as well as improving learning and teaching of statistics. Ayse was a recipient of several learning and teaching awards for her outstanding contributions to student learning such as an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation for ‘Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning’, a Macquarie University VC Citation, ATEM Award Community Engagement (Highly Commended); Higher Education Award for Employability; joint recipient of Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT). Her pedagogical research interests are focused on statistics education, such as learning approaches in statistics, work integrated learning in statistics, impact of learning spaces to students’ learning. She was awarded “Excellence in research: Five Future-shaping Priorities (Healthy People)” by Macquarie University and she was a member of research team which were the finalist of the Eureka Prize in2017.

Affiliations: Macquarie University, Australia & International Association for Statistical Education