Microworlds in Statistics Education: Creating Interactive Visualizations for Causal Graphs

Abstract

Statistics and the knowledge of statistics plays an important role in social science research. However, statistics, as used in research work, is often misused or misunderstood. It is thus important to constantly evaluate the ways in which statistics education at the introductory level can be improved. In this paper, we focus on the role of technology - microworlds and interactive visualizations in particular - in statistics education. We do so through the creation of a web based tool catered to aid in the understanding of concepts of causal graphs as taught in the course SOC 400/500: Applied Social Statistics. We discuss in detail the methodology of creation of such a tool starting from an analysis of available resources, to the assessment of needs, curation of content, the development of visualizations and subsequent evaluations. We discuss the challenges and limitations that come into play and outline a number of structural considerations to help in the continued development of this tool as well as the development of other similar tools. We believe that the content and visuals we have compiled will help future students taking the course and that the discussions in this paper will be a useful guide for educators interested in developing similar educational tools.