Approaches to Assessment in Multivariate Analysis

This paper reviews trends in assessment in quantitative courses and illustrates several options and approaches to assessment for advanced courses at the graduate level, especially in multivariate analysis. The paper provides a summary of how a researcher has used alternatives to traditional methods of assessment in a course on multivariate analysis. The results of a survey of student ratings of assessment strategies are presented. Among the trends in statistical education are an emphasis on activity-based learning and a recognition of assessment as learning. In the multivariate analysis course, the researcher/teacher has used four different kinds of assessment: (1) structured data analysis assignments; (2) open-ended assignments that require students to develop research questions; (3) articles reviews; and (4) annotating output from computer runs. Examples of each assessment type are given. At the end of the course, the 14 students were asked to rate each strategy. Overall, the survey findings suggest that