Teaching of Statistics in Social Sciences Through E-Learning

International audienceThis paper focuses on the organization and content of social interactions in a group of University of Lyon 2 students engaged in an e-learning situation dealing with statistical concepts. The importance of social interactions in the teaching and learning has been informed by socio-constructivist theories. We examined observable traces of micro-level exchanges between students engaged in a complex e-learning task, noting technical constraints and spatio-temporal characteristics that influence course participants engaged in a social organization established to achieve a common goal. To do this we used both quantitative and qualitative analyses of messages exchanged on a participant discussion forum. Statistics education in an online, distance, collaborative group situation is a new framework for learning. The mechanism of teaching and learning based on collaborative work through the observable traces of online social interactions was explored. The main focus of our study was to discover what occurs when students attempt to learn Statistics without face-to-face meetings with their classmates and their teacher. Our data show that in this online course, students took keen interest in the topic and enhanced their learning. We believe that this online mode of teaching statistics, even though lacking in face-to-face interactions, should be implemented on a wider scale since it has the potential to provide more opportunities for interactions irrespective of geographical boundaries