A Pilot for a Shared Online Statistics Advisory Service

Statistics Advisory Services (SASs) have recently been established at several UK HE institutions [1], offering statistics help and advice to students undertaking a final year undergraduate or Masters project or engaged in postgraduate research. A SAS is appointments based and is normally provided in addition to drop-in support offered via a mathematics support centre. Typically it offers statistics advice in relation to aspects of study design, questionnaire design, data analysis, use of statistics software, and the interpretation and reporting of results. However, not all UK HE institutions currently offer this type of SAS, possibly due to a lack of suitably experienced personnel or financial resources. In response to this, a National HE STEM Programme pilot project operated an online SAS shared between several HE institutions. The objectives of the project were to identify the practical and pedagogical issues associated with sharing an online SAS resource, and to elicit the opinions of students using the service in order to understand their expectations and experience of using this type of online support.