This course was so much fun to teach. This was a Summer Start course, which meant that all of my students were incoming freshman. These students all live in the same dorm, go on trips together, and build a strong sense of camaraderie. The students in this class often have some trouble with the material because they often do not consider themselves to be good at math. So while I was teaching relatively elementary statistical concepts, I was all the while trying to help these students see their potential. This was also the first course that I was an instructor for. That said, developing supplemental materials was somewhat challenging. My previous experience as a workshop facilitator and as a recitation instructor made it easier to gather what the students were struggling with and create materials to address those problems.
A huge part of this course is the MiniTab Labs. During the regular semester students complete one lab per week. During the summer I decided to condense these labs to one lab per chapter.
I think that my worksheets effectively and efficiently gave students a place to practice the skills they were learning. In retrospect, I should have started making more worksheets earlier in the course and using excess class time to have students work on these in class. I think that this also would have given me an opportunity to practice developing inquiry based learning inspired worksheets.
If I were to teach this course again, I would use my supplemental worksheets as homework assignments. The list of problems included in the syllabus is nonspecific and is a remnant of the large lecture structure. Moreover, I would grade these assignments to give students credit for working on material outside of class. I think that this would address my lowest mark, which was that the assignments were only sometimes worthwhile. On the whole I think that the students enjoyed being in this class as much as I enjoyed teaching it. This really gave me an environment to strive for in subsequent semesters.