Participation in the Learning Process

The textbook, activities, instructors, and teaching assistants are all resources that are at your disposal to help you learn the material. In the end, however, you will have to do all of the hard work associated with actually learning that material. To successfully navigate this process, it is vital that you be an active participant in the learning process. Coming to class, participating in the activities and discussions, reading, completing the assignments, and asking questions are essential to successful learning.

Learning anything new takes time and effort and this is especially true of learning statistics, as you are not just learning a set of methods, but rather a disciplined way of thinking about the world. Changing your habits of mind will take continual practice. It will also take a great deal of patience and persistence.

As you engage in and use the skills, concepts and ideas introduced in the material, you will find yourself thinking about data and evidence in a different way. This may lead you to make different decisions or choices. But, even if this course does not change your world overnight, you will at the very least be able to critically think about inferences and conclusions drawn from data.