Mary Ann Shifflet, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Southern Indiana
In a college of business at a high-access university, business statistics is among the most dreaded, but also one of the most important classes. The ability to access, visualize and make decisions with data is critical to success in business and is therefore important to all business students. Traditional business statistics courses tend to be somewhat theoretical and formula driven. As it became obvious that this approach was not working well for most of our students, we were forced to rethink our approach, our goals and our techniques. The objective was to simplify the formulas and calculations so students could better focus on how to use data for decision making. The result is a course that centers on statistical thinking and problem-solving tools, and takes advantage of the power and simplicity of JMP. In this talk we will provide examples of how JMP is being used and will discuss the redesign, the implementation, the successes and the challenges inherent with any course restructuring.
