Funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Maths Stats & OR Network (MSOR Network) has allowed a team at the University of Southampton to develop statistics eLearning websites for i) the design and analysis of experiments and ii) modern regression methods. The websites have a particular focus on the application of the methods in chemistry research but much of the material is generic. Some key features are:
- the use of authentic chemistry examples to stress the relevance of statistics in real applications;
- the use of interactive examples which make use of R [1] functions and routines to allow students to engage with the material; and
- the provision of some formative feedback to students via “scenarios” based on simulated data and also multiple choice questions.
An earlier article [2] introduced the design of experiments (DOE) website and its philosophy. In this article we focus on the additional interactive elements that have been added to the DOE website by a MSOR mini-project over the last year introduce the regression website and compare its design and implementation with the DOE page and discuss the use of both websites with a variety of student groups and review the feedback we obtained.
