SBIR Phase I: Web-Based Urn Sampler and Statistical Authoring Environment

Cytel Software的这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一个基于网络的“骨灰盒采样器”，让学生通过从骨灰盒中抽取球，投掷骰子，从列表中抽取数字以及洗牌等熟悉的概率机制来解决问题。 通过使用熟悉的符号和标准工具，瓮采样器将呈现出较低的学习障碍：用于采样操作的图标和用于数据输入和计算的电子表格界面。 它将嵌入并作为一个基于网络的创作环境的关键组成部分，在这个环境中，统计教师创建，分享和提供基于Urn Sampler的实验练习，以及超链接文本，短视频剪辑，自我评估考试和常见问题（FAQ）。 其目的是建立一个统计课程开发“社区”，其方式与Linux操作系统的开放式可用性建立了一个有助于该系统进一步开发的社区的方式大致相同。 瓮采样器将解决不同的观众，包括本科生和研究生采取的定量推理或统计学必修课程，学生采取本科专业或统计学副修，研究生学习统计学，并继续教育的学生。统计学入门教育一直是一个问题的领域：许多学生从他们的必修课学习很少，并采取不喜欢的主题。 出于同样的原因，这是一个更好的产品的商业机会，目标市场的统计学生，估计有100万本科统计学生每年与每个学生的书籍，软件和其他材料的支出为50美元至100美元，因此，总市场超过5000万美元每年。 Cytel Software的骨灰盒采样器所体现的再现/模拟方法作为一种教学策略有着成功的记录，基于网络的创作和学习环境将允许分享最好和最具创新性的课程材料。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project from Cytel Software will develop a web-based 'Urn Sampler' that allows students to solve problems via the familiar probability mechanisms of drawing balls from an urn, throwing dice, drawing numbers from a list, and shuffling a deck of cards. The Urn Sampler will present a low learning hurdle by using familiar symbols and standard tools: icons for sampling operations and a spreadsheet interface for data entry and calculations. It will be embedded in and serve as the key component of a web-based authoring environment in which statistics teachers create, share and deliver lab exercises based on the Urn Sampler, as well as hyperlinked text, short video clips, self-assessment exams and frequently asked questions (FAQ's). The intent is to create a statistics curriculum development 'community' in much the same way that the open availability of the Linux operating system has created a community that contributes to further development of that system. The Urn Sampler will address a diverse audience, including undergraduate and graduate students taking a required course in quantitative reasoning or statistics, students taking an undergraduate major or minor in statistics, graduate students studying statistics, and continuing education students.Introductory statistics education has always been a problem area: many students learn little from their required course and take a disliking to the subject. By the same token, it is a commercial opportunity for a better product to target the market of statistics students-there are estimated 1,000,000 undergraduate statistics students per year with per student expenditures of $50 to $100 for books, software and other materials and thus a total market of over $50 million annually. Cytel Software's resampling/simulation approach embodied in the Urn Sampler has a successful track record as a teaching strategy, and the web-based authoring and learning environment will allow sharing of the best and most innovative curricular materials.