Hypermedia System To Teach Statistics.
Lorí Viali · 1998
ABSTRACT- Teaching courses that require a high mathematics background is not an easy task. This happens because the majority of the students do not like anything that includes a lot of numbers. The reasons for this are multiples. Many studies have already tried to identify the causes why many students of all areas fail to get approved in undergraduates' courses like Calculus, Linear Algebra, Analytic Geometry, Probability and Statistics. In engineering areas the reasons are not exactly the lack of appreciation of Mathematics, however the problem seems to be the same [CUR92, CUR95, FER91, MOR90]. After the success of the computers in all areas, including learning, and the fantastic growth of Internet and WWW, new and more effective ways are attracting students and arising their enthusiasm to study any subject. However, the enthusiasm is not enough (the majority of the students have a poor background in mathematics), but we can take advantage of their interest and disposition to reinforce the weakness of their math formation. The best way to do this, I believe, is to use a system that includes WWW and Internet. The majority of students are familiar with the WWW and its interface, thus it is a waste of time using some other system where the students need to know everything from the beginning. This work presents a hypermedia system to help teach Probability and Statistics driven by Internet and using WWW as a tool, where the user can take the subjects from a browser in a dynamic and attractive way. The system has associated auxiliary resources to help the user understand better the contents. He or she can performing simulations, visualizing charts in a dynamic way, performing calculations using a spreadsheet and communicating with the teacher or colleagues (by e − mail) and, to sharing and discussing doubts (by chat). 1.