Incorporating Visual Literacy Standards in an Introductory Statistics Course by Jill Young and Claudia Ruediger
Twenty-first-century learners use the Internet to find answers to questions. Popular approaches to finding answers include search engines (e.g., Google) and applications (e.g., Wikipedia). Antiquated approaches to solving mathematical and statistical problems are replaced with sophisticated applications (e.g., Excel). Anyone with Internet access can use YouTube to gain knowledge about nearly every subject. In this context, how might we, as imparters of knowledge, engage students in learning statistics?
The focus of this discussion revolved around a project conducted in an introductory college course on business statistics. Students used statistics to analyze e-voting data and learned how to visually represent their analysis. Students were introduced to infographic software and visual literacy competencies. Working in small groups, students used infographic software to develop visual analyses. The instructor and librarian instructor established a rubric for students as a framework for their visual representation. Students developed and demonstrated knowledge in all seven skill areas defined in the Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education