This project proposes the development of approximately ten computer programs utilizing new features of multi-media, interactive, instructional design. The programs will reinforce the conceptual learning of the basic elements of quantitative/statistical reasoning in the social sciences: critical thinking skills, probability, conceptual modeling and hypotheses construction, statistical modeling, sampling, and inference. Instructional design techniques are used to improve student learning: interactive feedback, learner control, active learning, conceptual mapping, and performance tracking. The modules will be written using AUTHORWARE, an application development tool that creates programs executable as both resident software and over an INTRANET using AUTHORWARE's browser plug-in, SHOCKWAVE. The development of these applications addresses a major problem encountered in teaching quantitative statistical reasoning - how to improve students' understanding of basic concepts used in statistical reasoning, the linkage between concepts, and their role in solving real world problems, especially among students under educated in mathematics. The modules will be used in a course sited in a laboratory known as the Sociology Quantitative Research Laboratory, which was equipped with the aid of an NSF ILI grant. These modules will add the "conceptual learning" tools to existing "computational learning" lab tools. An experimental design using students in an introductory methods course will evaluate the improvement in student learning. The learning modules will have a general social science context relevant for nearly all sociology and social science research courses. We plan to distribute the modules commercially.
