Teaching Statistics and Data Science to Business Students

Abstract

Data and the analyses thereof are more important than ever for driving critical decision-making in different business applications today. Hence, statistics forms an integral part of most business curriculum across colleges and universities at both undergraduate and graduate levels. This article explores the different facets of teaching statistics (and data science, by extension) to non-STEM majors at a minority-serving institution located in the western United States. It starts with a brief overview of their business statistics course curriculum along with assessment outcomes reported in recent years. It then presents some of my own research in understanding factors that impact student performance and success in this course for potential early detection of “at-risk” students, the role of academic support services like Supplemental Instruction (or SI) in potentially improving student outcomes, the differences in student outcomes between traditional face-to-face and online sections of the course, and lastly the challenges faced during the virtual instruction period precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020. The article concludes with some of my own reflections from teaching this course for over 10 years and the future opportunities to further improve student outcomes in this course, particularly for underserved students.