ASA Volunteers Create Resource for Teachers: Statistical Commons

David Banks, Duke University

Many of us teach. We know the joy of encountering eager and curious minds, and then drilling them on the proper use of a z-table, the memorization of sum of squares formulae, and the rote recitation of the definition of a p-value.

But not all aspects of teaching give such satisfaction. Personally, I find it tedious to continually construct exams and quizzes that are fresh and fun. There is an unremitting search to find interesting data sets that achieve specific pedagogic purposes. And I know many new teachers value access to pre-written and battle-tested lecture notes.

To address these problems, and to create new value for members of the ASA, a group of has worked to create a website that allows teachers to share lectures, exams, quizzes, data sets, and so forth.

The website is hosted on the Members Only area of the ASA platform, and can be accessed only by people who pay the regular (nonstudent) membership fee.

Currently, the site contains full course materials for the following:

• A noncalculus introduction to statistics, as developed by Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel
• A noncalculus introduction to biostatistics, as developed by Kari Lock Morgan
• A calculus-based introduction to statistics, as developed by David Banks

The hope is that others will upload similar materials, either full courses or perhaps just portions of courses, such as final exams or notes for especially engaging lectures. And there is no need to restrict this resource to introductory courses; it would be wonderful to add graduate material or anything else that would assist teachers and benefit students.

The site also contains qualifying exams and their solution keys. Most graduate programs require first-year students to pass some such exam, and many provide their students with older exams on which to practice. Since the set of interesting and discriminating questions is large but finite, it makes sense for departments to share these questions broadly and thus reduce the dreary springtime chore of concocting new problems ab initio.

This new website is called the Statistical Commons. Instructions for uploading new material are on the website. New material will be lightly reviewed and categorized by moderators before it becomes accessible.