Web-based tools for the teaching of statistics using R and MATLAB/Gnu Octave

(1)

Web-based tools for the teaching of statistics

using R and MATLAB/Gnu Octave

Sigbert Klinke

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Ladislaus von Bortkiewicz Chair of Statistics

(2)

The web as hub

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Teaching statistics

Lectures

Teaching material

Exercises

Exams

(3)

The university uses methods like a thousand years ago

Source: Spiegel Online 19.03.12

Thrun teaches since 2012 at

Udacity

, an online

university

Can we stream our lecture to

internet? Yes, we can!

Technical solutions

WatchMyCam

BigBlueButton

Adobe Connect

(4)

Limitations and solution

Limitations

Bandwidth for streaming

Tunining image and voice

Maintaining another

server and software

Solutions

DFN

provides a Adobe

connect server for free

Intended for web

conferencing

(5)

Experiences

Since summer 2012

streaming of lectures

∼

50 lectures

streamed

STAT 101 and 102

∼

50-100 viewers

recording possible,

not done yet

Problems

anonymous

student logins

connection

(6)

CD

MM*Stat CD (1998) by

Härdle et al.

book structure

chapter and sections

hyperlinks

different kind of examples

XploRe server on CD

multiple choice exercises

various languages

problems

JScript used

only IE 5ff

(7)

ZWiki

A wiki is usually a web application

which allows people to add, modify, or

delete content in a collaboration with

others.

wiki requirements

math (via L

A

_TEX)

exercises (quizzes)

integration of statistical

software

prequel wiki (2003)

with Zope, ZWiki and

LatexWiki plugin

stopped in 2005 (

no

maintenance!

)

integration of XploRe and

R

(8)

MediaWiki

Mediawiki

offers

quizzes

math rendering

a lot more extensions

other wikis possible

DokuWiki

TWiki

for more see

wikimatrix.org

our wikis (2005)

Teachwiki

StatWiki

(9)

Maintain content not software

MM*Stat wiki (2006)

save the content of CD

use

Quiz

extension for

exercises

statistical software?

R

extension for Mediawiki

several web-based

interfaces for R

R-php

RStudio

web server

(10)

R extension

Klinke & Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia

(2007)

Embedding R in the Mediawiki,

SFB 649 Discussion Papers.

development start in 2006

goal

generate tables

generate figures

output

raw & graphics

HTML

wiki

how many distribution

function tables to display?

(11)

Workflow

R

raw

<R>...</R>

<M>...</M>

/

_{R extension}

8

8 /

/

&

C

HTML

Octave

X

MediaWiki

(12)

(13)

Security

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Highly dangerous

system

calls

eval

calls

Further risks

file I/O

→

reading data?

user interaction

graphical user interface

system information

Defence

scan input (forbidden routines)

scan output (PHP, JavaScript)

virtual machine

(14)

Homework & written exams

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Homework

planned in 2014

lead students to statistics

earlier

experience show:

60% of students are not

teamworking

Exams

number raises: +40% in

last term

two exams after lecture

then nine months break

(15)

MAUTS

From: 2 Oct 2013

Moodle - the CMS of HU

Berlin

offers a Test module

allows for random

questions

answer format: numeric,

free text, (multiple

choice), ...

MAUTS project

transfer

>

400 STAT

101/102 exercises to

Moodle

generate tests for specific

topics and an exam

(16)

Exercise analysis

10 20 30 40 0 5 10 15

Error rate (STAT 102)

Number of trials

Number of wrong answ

ers 5−02 5−03 5−04 5−05 5−06 5−07 5−08 5−095−10 5−11 5−12 5−13 5−14 5−15 5−16 5−17 5−18 5−19 5−20 5−21 5−22 5−23 5−24 5−25 5−265−27 5−28 5−29 5−30 5−31 5−32 5−33 5−34 5−35 5−36 5−37 5−38 5−39 5−40 5−41 5−42 5−43 6−1 6−3 6−5 6−6 6−7 6−8 6−9 6−10 6−11 6−13 7−02 7−03 7−06 7−07 7−09 7−10 7−117−12 7−13 7−14 7−15 7−16 7−17 7−18 7−19 7−20 7−21 7−22 7−23 7−24 7−25 7−27 7−28 7−29 7−30 7−32 7−33 7−34 7−36 7−37 7−38 7−39 7−41 7−42 7−43 7−44 7−45 8−1 8−28−3 8−4 8−6 8−7 8−88−9 8−108−138−118−128−14 8−15 8−17 8−18 8−20 8−22 8−25 8−26 8−27 8−28 8−29 8−30 8−31 8−32 8−33 8−34 8−35 9−1 9−2 9−3 9−4 9−6 9−7 9−8 9−10 9−11 9−12 9−13 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 5 − Distributions 6 − Sampling theory 7 − Estimation methods 8 − Tests 9 − Regression

(17)

Q&A

Questions & Answers

(2002)

multiple choice exercises

from written exams

multiple exercise generation

analyse and react on student

answer

(18)

exams

package of R

Developed by

Grün and

Zeileis (2009)

Random selection of

exercises

Uses L

A

_{TEX & Sweave}

Generates

L

A

_TEX

PDF

Moodle

...

⇒

Individual E-exam

myexam <- list(

list.files(path, "^stichprobe"),

c(list.files(path, "^maxlik"), ...),

list.files(path, "^missing"),

list.files(path, "^outlier"),

list.files(path, "^robust"),

list.files(path, "^univariate"),

list.files(path, "^transformation"),

list.files(path, "^verteilung"),

list.files(path, "^test_allg"),

...

list.files(path, "^prak")

)

exams(myexam, n=30,...)

(19)

End of talk

Webcast of

lectures:

recording?

Collecting

our statistics

videos

Extending the

R extension

e.g. Gretl, PSPP

What else

can be done?

e

_O

₈

/

&

y

Streamlining

the R extension

E-exam &

homework

(2014)

Translation

of MM*Stat

Deepening

of MM*Stat