Date

11-13-2024

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)

Chair

Janice Kooken

Keywords

statistics anxiety, nontraditional students, online, asynchronous

Disciplines

Education

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to determine if there was a difference in post-course statistics interpretation anxiety for asynchronous online introductory statistics students who were traditional, those under age 24, and those who were nontraditional, aged 24 and older, when controlling for pre-course statistics interpretation anxiety. This study provides valuable information to creators and instructors of online statistics courses to understand how to better create courses to service students concerning statistics interpretation anxiety. Sixty-nine students taking the same online statistics course at a large university in the northeastern United States were assessed. The pre-course and post-course Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale scores were collected from each student during the summer semester of the 2023-2024 academic year. The study used a one-way ANCOVA to determine if there was a difference in the post-course statistics interpretation anxiety among asynchronous online introductory statistics students who were traditional and those who were nontraditional when controlling for pre-course statistics interpretation anxiety. The study showed that there was no statistically significant difference in post-course statistics interpretation anxiety for students who were traditional or nontraditional when controlling for pre-course statistics interpretation anxiety (p = .463, partial η2 = .008). The researcher discussed the implications of the results and called for additional research into other covariates of statistics anxiety, investigation into other dimensions of statistics anxiety, and modernization of the STARS instrument.

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