This paper explores the implementation of service-learning projects in a survey sampling statistics course. In these projects, students worked with a community partner to develop and administer a survey, analyze the data collected, and present the results. A study with 23 participants was conducted to investigate whether students' attitudes…

Almost half of current academic staff will need to be replaced within three years in the Australian academic workforce. Literature suggests that casual academics are a potential solution, yet they are frequently excluded from the career development opportunities that would allow them to fulfil an ongoing academic role. Most academic development…

The interaction between language and the learning of statistical concepts has been receiving increased attention. The Communication, Language, And Statistics Survey (CLASS) was developed in response to the need to focus on dynamics of language in light of the culturally and linguistically diverse environments of introductory statistics classrooms.…

This empirical study uses the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) to investigate the characteristics of households that hold at least one loan for educational expenses. The benefit of using household-level data is that a single household may have education loans for multiple people in the household, including the household head, spouse/partner,…

This paper reports on longitudinal study regarding integrity of testing in an online format as used by e-learning platforms. Specifically, this study explains whether online testing, which implies an open book format is compromising integrity of assessment by encouraging cheating among students. Statistical experiment designed for this study…

Statistics in Brief publications present descriptive data in tabular formats to provide useful information to a broad audience, including members of the general public. They address simple and topical issues and questions. Using data from 2011-12, this Statistics in Brief updates and expands on a previous National Center for Education Statistics…

While new technology continues to develop and become increasingly affordable, and students have increased access to electronic media, one might wonder if requiring such technology in the classroom is akin to throwing the car keys to a teen-ager who has not completed a driver's education course. Currently, no validated survey has been created…

A jack knife is a pocket knife that is put to many tasks, because it's ready to hand. Often there could be a better tool for the job, such as a screwdriver, a scraper, or a can-opener, but these are not usually pocket items. In statistical terms, the expression implies making do with what's available. Another simile, of an extreme situation, is…

Educational technology continues to expand with multi-user virtual environments (e.g., Second Life™) being the latest technology. Understanding a virtual environment's usability can enhance educational planning and effective use. Usability includes the interaction quality between an individual and the item being assessed. The purpose was to assess…

In 1970, prior to the 1972 enactment of Title IX, there were only 2.5 women's teams per school and a total of only about 16,000 female intercollegiate athletes. In 1977/1978, the academic year preceding the mandatory compliance date for Title IX, the number of varsity sports for women had grown to 5.61 per school. A decade later, in 1988, the…

Approximately 632,700 graduate students were enrolled in science, engineering, and health (SEH) programs in the United States as of fall 2010, a 30% increase from approximately 493,300 students in 2000, according to the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (GSS). The growth…

Economists Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks recently assembled time-series survey data on college student time use from a number of sources spanning four decades. Their study, titled "The Falling Time Cost of College: Evidence from a Half Century of Time Use Data," will appear in a forthcoming issue of the "Review of Economics and…

Academic libraries have traditionally collected reference statistics using hash marks on paper. Although efficient and simple, this method is not an effective way to capture the complexity of reference transactions. Several electronic tools are now available to assist libraries with collecting often elusive reference data--among them homegrown…

In 2011-12, graduate students received a total of $51.7 billion in federal loans and grants, institutional grants, employer support, and financial aid from other sources. In 2007-08, this figure was $36.7 billion (College Board 2008, 2012). The data presented in these Web Tables were collected through five administrations of the National…

When it comes to hard data about what they do, policy makers and educators in the humanities have been mostly left out in the cold, forced to rely on isolated statistics that do not give an overview of the field. That changed this month, as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences unveiled the prototype of its long-awaited Humanities Indicators…