Use of Hands-on and Remote Lab with an Inquiry-Based Approach to Learn Statistics in Engineering

Practical activities are an effective way to contextualize concepts and motivate students. This article reports on an innovative use of hands-on and remote labs in a theoretical course of Statistics for engineering undergraduates. The lecturer used an inquiry-based approach to center learning around students. The problems proposed revolved around basic concepts of circuit theory: how reliable are resistance values and how does a resistor behave in an electric circuit. Students collected data and learned statistics while attempted to address the problems. We report on two implementations done in 2017, at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (Brazil), where 68 students concluded the course. We investigated the effects of such strategy, analyzing assessment results, attendance and accesses to the remote lab. We also surveyed the lecturer and students on the methodology and the use of the remote lab. Our results show that students and lecturer had positive views on the experience and suggest that students felt motivated to collaborate and learn statistics. We also found correlation among grades in lab activities and final grades, which shows the hands-on activities had a positive impact on students' academic performance.