Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

From Degree To Chief Information Security Officer (Ciso): A Framework For Consideration, Wendi M. Kappers, Martha Nanette Harrell,

Publications

Educational entities are establishing program degree content designed to ensure cybersecurity and information security assurance skills are adequate and efficient for preparing students to be successful in this very important field. Many Master’s level programs include courses that address these skills in an attempt to provide a well-rounded program of study. However, undergraduates who are in the practitioner’s world have other alternatives to gain these skills. These individuals can gain various certifications, such as the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) or the Certified Information Security Manager (CISM). Due to a perceived gap between academics and field knowledge, it appears …

Seeing And Understanding Data, Beverly Wood, Charlotte Bolch

Publications

Visual displays of data are commonly used today in media reports online or in print. For example, data visualizations are sometimes used as a marketing tool to convince people to purchase a certain product, or they are displayed in articles or magazines as a way to graphically display data to emphasize a certain point. In general, it is hard to imagine the majority of disciplines in science and mathematics not using data visualizations. However, before standard data visualization techniques were developed (and accepted by the community), mathematicians and scientists very rarely used graphical displays or pictures to represent empirical data.

Stem And Sustainability: Creating Aviation Professional Change Agents, P. Clark, Doreen Mcgunagle, L. Zizka

Publications

With the evolution of the workforce and the growing needs of the aviation industry, a clear need for concrete sustainability initiatives and actions have emerged. Sustainability in this sense becomes a matter of survival. For this reason, in this chapter, we will attempt to close three gaps in current sustainability studies: Theory vs practice, intention vs behavior, and education vs workplace.

Our purpose is to develop a ‘simple’ strategy for integrating all three pillars of sustainability into STEM HE programs that create authentic engagement and real buy-in from the students that are then replicated in the workplace. Based on the …

Updated Guidelines, Updated Curriculum: The Gaise College Report And Introductory Statistics For The Modern Student, Beverly Wood, Megan Mocko, Michelle Everson, Nicholas J. Horton, Paul Velleman

Publications

Since the 2005 American Statistical Association's (ASA) endorsement of the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) College Report, changes in the statistics field and statistics education have had a major impact on the teaching and learning of statistics. We now live in a world where "Statistics - the science of learning from data - is the fastest-growing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) undergraduate degree in the United States," according to the ASA, and where many jobs demand an understanding of how to explore and make sense of data. In light of these new reports and other …

A Comparison Of Online, Video Synchronous, And Traditional Learning Modes For An Introductory Undergraduate Physics Course, Emily K. Faulconer, John C. Griffith, Beverly Wood, Donna Roberts

Publications

While the equivalence between online and traditional classrooms has been well-researched, very little of this includes college-level introductory Physics. Only one study explored Physics at the whole-class level rather than specific course components such as a single lab or a homework platform. In this work, we compared the failure rate, grade distribution, and withdrawal rates in an introductory undergraduate Physics course across several learning modes including traditional face-to-face instruction, synchronous video instruction, and online classes. Statistically significant differences were found for student failure rates,grade distribution, and withdrawal rates but yielded small effect sizes. Post-hoc pair-wise test was run to determine …

Real Data Is Messy... And Manageable, Beverly Wood, Carl Clark

Publications

Using real data in an introductory statistics course is a delicate balance between reality and manageability. The internet is awash with data that is useful for students to answer questions of interest to them but it is not always formatted as neatly as textbook data. The ASA's recently endorsed GAISE College Report 2016 points to the plausibility of considering multivariable thinking even if only at a rudimentary level. With both messy and multivariable data in mind, we present some activities/projects and sources for data to give introductory students the opportunity to engage with real data.

Using Journals To Assess Non-Stem Student Learning In Stem Courses: A Case Study In Cybersecurity Education, Gary Kessler, Glenn S. Dardick, Douglas L. Holton

Publications

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University offers a minor course of study in cybersecurity as an option in our undergraduate Homeland Security program. Since the students are, by and large, social scientists, the focus of the program is to build hyper-awareness of how cybersecurity integrates within their professional aspirations rather than to provide cybersecurity career-level proficiency. Assessing student learning of the technical aspects cannot be performed using traditional tests, as they would not properly measure what the students are learning in a practical sense. Instead, we employ journals and self-reflection to ask the students to express and demonstrate their learning. Although somewhat harder …

Guidelines For Assessment And Instruction In Statistics Education (Gaise) College Report 2016, Robert Carver, Michelle Everson, John Gabrosek, Nicholas Horton, Robin Lock, Megan Mocko, Allan Rossman, Ginger Holmes Roswell, Paul Velleman, Jeffrey Witmer, Beverly Wood

Publications

In 2005 the American Statistical Association (ASA) endorsed the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) College Report. This report has had a profound impact on the teaching of introductory statistics in two- and four-year institutions, and the six recommendations put forward in the report have stood the test of time. Much has happened within the statistics education community and beyond in the intervening 10 years, making it critical to re-evaluate and update this important report. For readers who are unfamiliar with the original GAISE College Report or who are new to the statistics education community, the full …

Gaiseing Into The New Guidelines, Robert Carver, Megan Mocko, Jeffrey Witmer, Beverly Wood

Publications

The first GAISE College Report came out in 2005. Over the past ten years our discipline has changed in many ways, including but not limited to what type of data is easily available, the technology that we use, as well as how we teach students. In this presentation we will briefly start with how the new GAISE 2016 guidelines and goals have changed, including the two new emphases of statistical thinking: giving students experience with multivariable thinking and with the investigative process. So how do you start to implement these new ideas? In this presentation, we will demonstrate an activity …

Multivariate Thinking In An Intro Stats Course – Is It Possible?, Beverly Wood

Publications

Many of our students have an intuitive sense that there is more to the story than univariate or bivariate data can tell us. We can acknowledge and encourage that habit of digging deeper by demonstrating some ways to look at additional variables. Simpson’s paradox and side-by-side scatter plots are ways to provide a glimpse of more complex analysis that are accessible to students in an introductory course with or without strong quantitative skills.

Gaise Into The Future: Updating A Landmark Report For An Increasingly Data-Centric World, Michelle Everson, Paul Velleman, Beverly Wood, John Gabrosek, Megan Mocko, Robert Carver

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Ever since its official endorsement by the American Statistical Association in 2005, the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) College Report has had a profound impact on the teaching of statistics. Now, a decade later, it is important to recognize the changing nature in what and how we teach our introductory statistics students. Changes in technology and assessment practices, just over the past 10 years, have made it possible to do new and exciting things in our courses, in very different ways than were envisioned by the authors of the original GAISE College Report. Further, our world …

The Gaise College Report: The American Statistical Association Meets Sound Pedagogy In Central Virginia, Beverly Wood

Publications

Research in undergraduate statistics education often centers on the introductory course required for a large percentage of college students. While acknowledging the diverse setting, audience, and purpose of introductory courses, existing research assumes that courses offered by different disciplines share the same goals and teaching practices. The purpose of this study is to examine the objectives for student outcomes and pedagogical delivery of introductory statistics courses in various academic departments to provide explicit evidence for this assumption. The American Statistical Association’s Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) are meant to apply to all introductory courses. The College …

What A User Wants: Redesigning A Library's Web Site Based On A Card-Sort Analysis, Laura Pope Robbins, Lisa Esposito, Christ Kretz, Michael Aloi

Publications

Web site usability concerns anyone with a web site to maintain. Libraries, however, are often the biggest offenders in terms of usability. In our efforts to provide users with everything they need to do research, we often overwhelm them with sites that are confusing in structure, difficult to navigate, and weighed down with jargon. Dowling College Library recently completed a redesign of its web site based upon the concept of usability. For smaller libraries in particular, this can be a challenge. The web site is often maintained by one or two people and finding the time and resources to conduct …