Assessing Student Learning in First-year Quantitative Courses at Babson College: Experimental Design

From 2001-2006 we used a number of approaches to assess how well our first-year students learn statistics and mathematics when introduced to different teaching methods. The topics introduced in their two courses include those found in a standard applied probability and statistics course. For example, descriptive linear regression. Most of these assessments have been based upon analyses of opinions and examination results from the students. This paper reports on designing experiments to determine whether electronic quizzes enhance student learning. A second paper presents the implementation of these experiments and a preliminary analysis of the data from these experiments.