Improving Active Learning: Innovation in Statistics Education

This chapter presents the results of a teaching innovation project aimed at improving the quality of teaching through the use of teaching–learning and assessment methodologies based on the active participation of students and has been developed in the subject of Statistics I in the degree in Business Administration and Management at the University of La Laguna. The methodological proposal consists of students organising themselves into teams to work, using a spreadsheet, on specific concepts of the subject and to create informative videos that emphasise the applicability and usefulness of the concept, using real data. In addition, each team prepares questionnaires to assess the understanding of the concept by the rest of the students after viewing the videos in class. The activity is evaluated by the teachers and by the students themselves using specific rubrics. In addition, all students complete a final satisfaction questionnaire. The results show a high degree of student participation and also a high degree of satisfaction with the activity carried out, highlighting very positively the guidance provided by the teachers during the development of the activity. They also show the achievement of certain competences of the subject such as the promotion of critical capacity and ethical commitment in the work, highly valued by the students, teamwork or the ability to analyse and search for information from different sources, among others, and the confirmation of a high degree of understanding of the concepts worked on. The students also indicate that the proposed methodology has contributed to making the classes more dynamic and increasing their interest in the subject, and they would like this methodology to be implemented in other subjects.