Evaluating access

Comparing enrollment patterns in traditional versus multidisciplinary, project-based introductory statistics courses

Abstract

 To evaluate the potential impact of a
multidisciplinary, project-based course on access to introductory statistics for
underrepresented students, this article examines differences in demographic and
disciplinary characteristics of students enrolling in a traditional introductory
statistics course compared to the multidisciplinary, project-based course.
Administrative data were based on individual student enrollment from fall
semester 2009 and spring semester 2014. Results indicated that the project-based
course provided an increased number of seats and enrollment from a large range
of majors. Higher rates of under-represented students chose the project-based
alternative over traditional introductory statistics. Though there was evidence
that the project-based course also attracted students with lower Math
achievement scores, a significant interaction between Math achievement and
under-represented student (URM) status demonstrated that URM students
selecting the project-based course had lower math achievement scores than URM
students selecting the traditional course suggesting that prior math achievement.