I was putting together an answer key earlier this week for a practice activity that my online students were asked to work through.  As part of the activity, I share a data set with students, and they are asked to explore the data and ultimately conduct a two-sample t-test.  They are also asked to interpret their output and reason through a few other questions related to hypothesis testing.

My husband noticed me working on this.  He watched for a short while as I went back and forth among R, SPSS, and StatCrunch in order to obtain output from each of these programs that I could incorporate into the answer key.  This is the first semester that I’ve tried to include all three of these software packages in my introductory statistics course, and students are able to choose which package they would like to use.  ”That seems like a lot of extra work for you,” my husband said.  ”Are you going to do that again next semester?”

If my husband had asked me this same question about six or seven weeks ago, I might have said “no.”  Although in theory the idea of giving students choices in terms of what they learn and how they learn is very appealing to me, several unexpected challenges came up early in the semester that made me question–in the long run–if it was going to be worth it, or if I was doing more harm than good.  There were a couple of weeks early in the semester where it seemed like I was putting out one fire after another, and there was part of me that felt I had made a huge mistake in terms of how I was structuring the course.  Now, however, things have settled down, and I feel more confident I did the right thing.  I also feel I’ve learned many valuable lessons that will hopefully lead to fewer problems in the spring (when we attempt to do this not only in my own section of the course, but in two other sections).

I would love to talk more to others who use multiple software packages or who give their students choices in terms of what software they use in the course.  I think it would be fascinating to learn what works and what doesn’t, and how the classroom environment can be set up so as to support student learning no matter what statistical software package students have decided to use.  My own experiences have led me to the following conclusions (thus far):

1. It’s very important to give students time early in the semester to explore their options, and it’s important to provide students with some guidance about which options might be best for their particular circumstances.  On my syllabus, I try to outline the differences among the three software packages I am using, and I try to suggest possible reasons why a student might choose one option over the other.  I also incorporate an assignment early in the course (due at the start of Week 2) that, among other things, prompts students to make a choice about what package they will use and to let me know why they are making that choice.  As part of the assignment, I share some short videos with the students (mostly things from YouTube) that are meant to introduce them to the packages and show them what it might be like to work with those packages.  I think this can help, especially in cases where it might not be possible for students to obtain a free demo copy of a package to explore.  For spring semester, I might make some of my own short videos to introduce the packages.
2. It’s important to make sure students are aware of what you (as the instructor) can and cannot help them with, and it’s important to make sure students know where they can go if they need technical support.  I had a handful of students who were trying to use StatCrunch and who had some problems getting the program to run appropriately.  Some of these students were Mac users, and because I am not a Mac user, I was not always sure what kind of advice to give to them.  I also had a couple of students trying to use SPSS who had rented copies of this through eAcademy but were being prompted to enter license codes that they said they had never received.  One of these students became so frustrated about this that she was about to drop the course.  In the future, I know that I need to (a) make it very clear to students where they should go to get technical assistance (and provide them with actual links and phone numbers), (b) suggest that students who are using something like StatCrunch try a different browser if they are initially having problems (and also make sure their computers have the latest version of Java), and (c) suggest that students who are renting SPSS from eAcademy check their spam folders in case important information about licensing happens to be marked as “spam.”
3.  It’s important to make sure, if students are having any problems using software, that they be as explicit as they can be with the instructor about what the problem is (especially in an online course where the instructor cannot look over a student’s shoulder as he or she is working).  Part of my frustration earlier in the term is that students would contact me and say they had a problem and the program was not working properly, but it wasn’t always clear to me just what the problem was, and sometimes going back and forth with the student did not yield the insight I hoped it would.  In the spring, I will advise students to–at the very minimum–send me a screenshot if they encounter a problem so I have a better understanding of what the issue might be (and can then, if necessary, refer them to technical support if I don’t have a solution).  I also feel that I need to be more explicit with students about the need to look at the reference materials we have shared with them in order to get some instruction about how to use their chosen software packages.  I’ve had some students who will casually mention during discussion that they did not look at the software reference guides we carefully prepared for them in order to figure out how to work through a problem; instead, they chose to just explore on their own, and they ultimately stumbled a solution (which sometimes was not at all correct).  I’m all for exploration and I encourage that, but I also think that sometimes, when you are first learning something, you may need a little more structure and guidance so you don’t end up going too far down the wrong path.
4. It’s important to have resources students can consult when they are not sure how to do something with a particular software program, and it’s important that these resources be well organized.  On my course website, I have separate folders for R, SPSS, and StatCrunch references.  I have references guides that I put together for each of the software programs that go through all students will need to know in order to get through my course.  In the guides, I try to go through things in a step-by-step fashion, and I include a lot of screenshots.  I also have links to other materials that go beyond our course, or that provide extra instruction (i.e., links to online tutorials or references created by others for the different software packages).  I try not to spend a lot of time–in my lecture notes–showing how to work through problems in three different ways (just as I would try not to do that in the classroom were I now teaching in a face-to-face environment).  I might have an example problem and show what the output will look like in the three different programs, but the instruction is in the reference guides, and I leave it to the students to consult those guides to find out what they need to do to get the output.  Related to this, I have set up separate discussion forums where students can post questions related to the software program they have chosen to use.  In the spring, I’m going to encourage students to post more in those forums or, at a very minimum, read through what other students have posted.  In particular, I’m going to encourage students who have gotten in touch with technical support about certain issues to report back to the class if a solution was found.  Perhaps this can be the start of a nice set of FAQs for each software package.

Interestingly, when I began this semester, I was most worried about using R in my course.   I worried this would be challenging for students to learn, and that I would get lots of questions about R that would be challenging for me to answer (since R is new for me as well).  This hasn’t been the case at all (quite possibly because of the wonderful reference guide Laura Le helped me create! ).  I actually only have five students (out of 40) who chose to use R this fall.  Most of the other students are using StatCrunch, and roughly 14 or so are using SPSS.  It will be interesting, in the spring, to see what our numbers look like, and how things might be different in a regular face-to-face classroom environment (where we have not yet tried to use R).  In the end, if most students are selecting just one package, is it really necessary to give them these choices???  That’s something I’m now wondering….

I had an opportunity recently to review another instructor’s syllabus.  She teaches a course that meets once per week, and it’s a blended course.  Some weeks, the students meet in a classroom setting, and other weeks, they do their work online.

One section of her syllabus stood out to me, and it left me seriously thinking about whether I might need to change some of what I’m doing.  The instructor provided students with her e-mail address and then noted the following:

Please send emails to the professor only if you have a personal issue or concern. Response time: up to 48 hours Monday through Friday. I am usually not online weekends or holidays.

It was the “I am usually not online weekends or holidays” that stopped me dead in my tracks as I was reading her syllabus.  Not online weekends or holidays?!?  How is that possible?!?  How can you still keep up with everything if you are not online weekends or holidays?  More importantly, how might it be possible for ME to get to that point where I can casually tell my own students I will probably not be online weekends or holidays?  Should I be doing that?

Maybe my mindset is different since I teach totally online courses where I know several of my students do a lot of work on the weekends.  Because discussion is a big part of my courses, I can’t imagine NOT being there on the weekends to read through their postings as they wrap up the assignments that are due by midnight on Monday, and to answer questions.  I would worry too much that I would miss something important, or that a student who needed extra support and encouragement wouldn’t get it and would become frustrated as a result.  I pride myself on trying to create a classroom community where students feel they are supported in the learning process, and I wouldn’t want to sacrifice this.

On the flip side, there is something in me that admires the instructor who CAN set those boundaries and who can make a life for herself (or himself) away from work.  This is something I continue to struggle with every day.  I would love to be able to NOT check my e-mail over the weekend, but anytime I think of trying that, I immediately panic at the thought of what would be waiting for me on Monday morning and how behind I would get.  Yet, for my own mental health, I think I have to figure out some way to make this more of a reality.  I need to set those times when I walk away from technology and when I spend time doing things that are not related to work.  Lately, I’ve been remiss in doing this.

People who read this blog are probably sick of me going on and on all the time about finding the perfect work/life balance.  I don’t know why it’s such a challenge for me.  I’m not even on the tenure-track, but I work pretty much 7 days a week and constantly take on more and more when I know I shouldn’t.  Just this week, a couple of opportunities came my way that I almost said “yes” to, but a sleepless night thinking about them made me realize I would be doing the wrong thing by saying “yes,” and I very reluctantly said “no.” What is wrong with me?!?  Why do I seem to feel so often that I have to prove myself to everyone else?

Perhaps it will never be possible for me to include a section like the one above in my own syllabi.  There is something about the wording that makes me feel like I’d be letting my students down if I weren’t more available to them, even though I know that probably sounds irrational. If I’m available too much, that isn’t good either since it means I’m being taken away from other things that are just as–if not MORE–important.  Still, there is something about seeing that statement that made me realize there is the possibility for a life outside of work, and only I have the power to make that happen.

I think one great perk of working in academia is getting desk copies of textbooks.  Some of the books I get are ones that I have specifically requested, but others arrive unexpectedly, and I get a thrill each time I check my mailbox and notice a new package has arrived for me.  It’s like Christmas. 

I have so many books now that I almost don’t know what to do with them.  The picture below is of one bookshelf in my home office; I have four other bookshelves just like that at home (all full) and then several more books in my campus office.  The sad part is that I haven’t read several of these books, and there are some that I’ve barely even glanced through.  I look at these books and think about how many great things are likely contained in their pages, and I long for the time when I can actually read them all and track down interesting new examples and innovative ways of explaining different ideas.  I have so many hidden treasures right in front of me, yet time never seems to be on my side.  Wouldn’t it be great to have a year just to read books and learn many new things?  A full-time job that just involved reading and filling your head with knowledge…Doesn’t that sound heavenly??

I’ve decided that one goal for this year is to take a different book off the shelf each week and spend some time reading it and getting better acquainted with it, and jotting down new ideas that I might be able to bring into the classroom.   That seems manageable, doesn’t it?