Evaluation of an Interactive Tutorial for Teaching the Central Limit Theorem

Authors

Christopher L. Aberson '99, Claremont Graduate University
Dale E. Berger, Claremont Graduate UniversityFollow
Michael R. Healy '04, Claremont Graduate UniversityFollow
Diana J. Kyle
Victoria L. Romero '07, Claremont Graduate UniversityFollow

Student Co-author

CGU Graduate

Document Type

Article

Department

Claremont Graduate University

Publication Date

2000

Disciplines

Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

In this article, we present an evaluation of a Web-based, interactive tutorial used to present the sampling distribution of the mean. The tutorial allows students to draw samples and explore the shapes of sampling distributions for several sample sizes. To evaluate the effectiveness of the tutorial, 111 students enrolled in statistics or research methods courses used either the interactive tutorial or attended a lecture and a demonstration on the sampling distribution of the mean. Students in both groups improved from pretest to posttest and no statistically significant differences between improvement scores were found between groups. Additionally, students rated the tutorial as easy to use and understand. In this study, we provide evidence that an Internet tutorial can be comparable in effectiveness to standard lecture or demonstration techniques.

Rights Information

© 2000 Taylor and Francis

DOI

10.1207/S15328023TOP2704_08

Recommended Citation

Aberson, C. L., Berger, D. E., Healy, M . R., Kyle, D., Romero, V. L. (2000). Evaluation of an interactive tutorial for teaching the Central Limit Theorem. Teaching of Psychology, 27, 289-291.