VisualStat - learning statistics through interactive visualization

VisualStat seeks to make statistics more accessible to the undergraduate student body at MIT through interactive visualization of statistical concepts. We are piloting this concept with the undergraduate course, 9.07 Statistics for Brain and Cognitive Sciences by Professor Emery Brown. Once successfully implemented,this project aims to support other MIT undergraduate statistics courses and beyond. “Seeing is believing!” Surprised by the lack of coherently designed and well-structured interactive statistical visualization online, we plan to build a series of interactive web applets carefully thought-out to teach statistical concepts. We have identified a library of applets to demonstrate fundamental concepts such as Set Theory using a Venn diagram to show advanced concepts such as Hypothesis Testing using the Bayesian approach. The contents will serve both the students’ learning and the instructors’ teaching needs.