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The data aggregation project: Free software that transforms the student laboratory experience

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Abstract

THE DATA AGGREGATION PROJECT (DAP) allows an instructor to quickly create a set of simple Web interfaces that make it easy for students to enter and check data, along with a link for the data to be downloaded as a spreadsheet. This means that an instructor can easily challenge students with large sets of data, which provides several practical pedagogic benefits including increasing ability to observe phenomena with small effects, reducing effects of observational errors, and providing a rationale for using technology to perform data analysis. In the introductory biology course at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a large lecture course with 30 laboratory sections, adoption of the DAP resulted in an increase in the number of data points students analyzed per semester from N=80 (estimated) to N=2237 (observed), an increase by a factor of almost 30.

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Correspondence to Steven D. Brewer.

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ABOUT THE PRIMARY AUTHOR

Steven D. Brewer is an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He holds a Bachelors degree in Biology and Spanish from Alma College and a Masters of Earth Science and a Doctor of Philosophy in Science Education from Western Michigan University. As Director of the Biology Computer Resource Center, Dr. Brewer serves as a consultant to faculty on the implementation of technology in support of education. In that role, he collaborates with faculty on the development of instructional technology resources. He is a founding member of the Western Massachusetts Linux & UNIX (WeMaLU) users group and is active in the development and use of free software.

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Brewer, S.D., Hoogendyk, T. & Hoagland, D.B. The data aggregation project: Free software that transforms the student laboratory experience. J. Comput. High. Educ. 15, 108–127 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02940855

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