Flexible deadlines and statistical communication

Authors

  • Samantha-Jo Caetano University of Toronto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52041/iase2023.401

Abstract

Proper communication of statistical methods and results are pertinent to the progression of scientific discovery. With stress levels of post-secondary students being on the rise, appropriate assessment design is vital to ensuring that students are supported. This paper discusses the implementation of a flexible late policy, with no grade penalty, applied to writing assignments of a large third-year statistics, undergraduate course. The paper investigates the usage of the flexible late policy across report style assignments, and students’ feelings about the late policy. Results show that 310 (97%) of students in the course used the grace period, and 264 (83%) used it on all assignments. Additionally, results show that 313 (98%) of the students in the study were happy that the grace period was available. Thus, it is recommended that instructors of large classes consider invoking a flexible grace period policy on large writing assessments in statistics (or other STEM) courses.

References

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Published

2024-03-29

Conference Proceedings Volume

Section

Topic 4: Promoting Inclusion in Statistics and Data Science Education