Keywords: Teaching Statistics using R, User Interface, Technology Acceptance Model
Teaching computation with
R within statistic education is affected by the acceptance of the technology (Baglin 2013). In a quasi-experiment we investigate whether different user interfaces to
R, namely
mosaic or
Rcmdr, influence the acceptance according to the Technology Acceptance Model (Venkatesh et al. 2003).
The focus thereby is on the perceived usefulness and ease of use of
R software for people studying while working in different economy related disciplines. At our private university of applied science for professionals studying while working with more than 30 study centres across Germany use of
R is compulsory in all statistical courses in all the different Master programs and in all study centres. Due to a change in the course of study we were able to teach the lecture twice in one term, one with
Rcmdr, one with
mosaic, enabling a quasi-experimental setup for two lectures each.
References Baglin, James. 2013. “Applying a Theoretical Model for Explaining the Development of Technological Skills in Statistics Education.”
Technology Innovations in Statistics Education 7 (2).
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8w97p75s.
Venkatesh, Viswanath, Michael G. Morris, Gordon B. Davis, and Fred D. Davis. 2003. “User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View.”
MIS Q. 27 (3): 425–78.
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2017197.2017202.
