CourseKata Statistics & Data Science

Welcome to CourseKata Statistics and Data Science, an innovative interactive online textbook for teaching introductory statistics and data science in colleges, universities, and high schools.

Part of CourseKata's Better Book Project, we are leveraging research and student data to guide continuous improvement of online learning resources. Learn more about CourseKata.

Highly-Interactive Student Experience

CourseKata's textbook–available in five versions–includes more than 1500 formative assessment questions, engaging students in active learning throughout.

Richly-Informative Teacher Tools

Teacher interface gives real-time access to students' thinking and progress through the book, as well as tools for easily distributing and collecting Jupyter notebooks.

Highly-Rated Professional Development

Teachers without coding experience rapidly feel prepared to teach our ambitious curriculum

Delivered Through Your LMS

Focus on Understanding & Knowledge Transfer

The Practicing Connections Approach

Statistical Modeling at the Core

Computational Approach

Gentle Introduction to R

Seamless Integration of Jupyter Notebooks

Delivered Through Your LMS

CourseKata's online book works with your campus Learning Management System. We currently support Canvas (including the Free for Teachers version), Blackboard and Moodle, with more to come.

Focus on Understanding and Transfer

In a traditional course, students master bits of knowledge (e.g., p, z, chi-square, ANOVA, regression, and so on) but often fail to develop a coherent understanding of how the bits are connected together. This lack of coherence results in fragmented knowledge that doesn't transfer. CourseKata's aim is deep understanding and transferable knowledge.

The Practicing Connections Approach

CourseKata's online book is based on the practicing connections hypothesis: Students continually practice making connections between core concepts, representations, and the world of data analysis. These connections result in deep understanding and transferable knowledge.

Statistical Modeling at the Core

CourseKata's online book is organized around the concept of statistical modeling and the practice of data analysis: exploring variation, modeling variation, and evaluating models.

A Computational Approach

CourseKata emphasizes computational methods—such as simulation, randomization, and bootstrapping—instead of formulas and mathematical derivations. The approach is accessible to all students, regardless of mathematical preparation.

Gentle Introduction to R

Students learn to program and analyze data using R, a standard open-source programming language for data science. R exercises are interleaved throughout the online book, giving students opportunities to continually practice applying the concepts they are learning.

Seamless Integration of Jupyter Notebooks

CourseKata's fully-hosted integration of Jupyter Notebooks provides a means of structuring in-class activities, sharing new data sets, and managing authentic assessments and student projects.