M.A. Birch’s scientific contributions

This study evaluated three tutorial modules, equivalent in content but different in mode of presentation, for introducing elementary statistics concepts. In a single session, fifty-seven college students participated in one of four randomly assigned conditions: paper-and-pencil, basic computerized, computerized multimedia, or control group. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, a survey of attitudes toward math and computers, the Personal Need for Structure (PNS) scale, a basic math proficiency test, an evaluation of assigned module, and a post test statistical comprehension test. The results suggested that participant evaluations of the modules were comparably positive. Although participants in the modules performed significantly better on the statistical comprehension posttest than those in the control group, there were no significant differences between the modules. The basic computerized module took significantly less time to complete than the other modules.