Teaching Statistics and Data Analysis with R

In this exploratory study, we characterize the attitudes and experiences of 672 undergraduate students as they used our online textbook as part of a 10-week introductory course in statistics. Students expressed negative attitudes and concerns related to R at the beginning of the course, but most developed more positive attitudes after engaging with course materials, regardless of demographic characteristics or prior programming experience. Analysis of a subgroup of students revealed that change in attitudes toward Rmay be linked to students’ patterns of engagement over time and students’ perceptions of the learning environment.