The consequences

• If students disengage, it's very hard to catch up independently

• Students will often bury their heads in the sand until it's too late for us to feasibly help them

• So ideally, we want to increase and encouragement engagement right from the beginning...

So, what can we do

• Statistics is often perceived as a 'dry' subject, but by utilising technology, we can transform it into a more engaging and enjoyable experience

  • Incorporating interactive tools can make challenging topics like statistics and R more approachable and help students stay connected with the material, even when they're finding it difficult

But what technologies???

2 main approaches focusing on:

• Interactivity

  • Shared documents, learnr tutorials, shiny apps, presentation tools, whiteboards, Discord

• Gamification principles

  • Points systems, challenges, easter eggs, Kahoot! quizzes, leaderboards, awards/prizes/hex stickers

• As scientists we know the best method would be to systematically test the effectiveness of each of these strategies

  • Which is exactly what we didn't do...

Interactive learnr tutorials

• Prof Andy Field's Discovr learnr tutorials
• Engages students with hands-on coding tasks and quizzes
• Offers real-time feedback to reinforce learning
• Self-paced allowing students to learn and review concepts at their own speed

Shiny apps

• Allows hands-on interaction with data, making learning more active
• Encourages experimentation with variables to deepen understanding
• Simplifies complex concepts through interactive visualisations
• Can make dull topics slightly less dull...

Presentation tools

• Glossary package, whiteboards & scribble with the xaringanExtra package:

'ChallengRs'

'Fun' challenges that build stats/R skills:

• Create a meme using the memer package
• Make a plot of puppies
• Analyse your whatsapp groupchats
• Find the most common lip sync song on RuPaul's drag race etc

Points are awarded for each challenge completed and submitted

• Goal setting with clear objectives, gives a sense of achievement
• Students can track their progress through self-directed problem-solving
• Encourages practice and mastery of coding skills

• An easter egg is a hidden feature, message, or inside joke intentionally placed in a piece of media (such as a movie, video game, software, or book) by its creators for users to discover as a fun secret or surprise

• Aims to encourage exploration, motivating students to engage with content more deeply

• Provides a sense of achievement: finding Easter eggs = a reward of points

• Enhances student experience: adds fun and playful interaction to content

  • [Essentially just me trolling students a bit]

Kahoot!

• Weekly Kahoot! quizzes in the last 10 mins of every lecture

• Competitive element encourages participation

• Provides instant insights into understanding, allowing students to correct mistakes

• Helps assess comprehension and mastery of the content, helping students identify areas that need further review

• Points earned give a sense of achievement and encourages continued effort

Kahoot!

Leaderboards & points

• Displays rankings to introduce competition and encourage improvement

• Points system awards achievements, incentivising engagement and effort

• Progress tracking: allows participants to see their performance relative to others

• Boosts motivation through visible rewards and competitive elements

• Encourages continued participation

Leaderboards & points

Looking forward

• More integrated approach:

  • Incorporate the aforementioned strategies into virtual learning environments (i.e. Canvas)

  • Use Canvas Badges to award hex sticker style badges based on various achievements and challenges

  • Integrate points system into Discord

• Actually collect some real data to assess the efficacy of these tools

• Explore differences in effectiveness between students

Top tips

• Provide multiple ways of engaging:

  • Allow for anonymity

  • Synchronous and asynchronous activities

  • Varied interests/topics

• Be mindful of student demographics and individual differences

  • Effectiveness of gamification techniques vary

• Doesn't have to be complicated: Discord, Padlet, Poll Everywhere & shared Google docs for discussions/Q&A

• Have fun with it!