CourseKata

Miss us at eCOTS this week? You've got one more chance! Join us next Tuesday as we rethink assessment in the age of AI.

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Why CourseKata? Here’s what students say helps them learn with CourseKata:

Real-world datasets help make abstract statistical ideas feel meaningful and relevant. But students also told us something important: strategically returning to familiar datasets helped build confidence and made it easier to integrate new ideas.

When students can connect to the context and don’t have to constantly relearn the dataset itself, they have more cognitive space for reasoning, modeling, and interpretation

CourseKata will be presenting at the Electronic Conference on Teaching Statistics (eCOTS)!

Join us for two interactive summer workshops exploring new ways to teach introductory statistics in more inclusive, engaging, and conceptually meaningful ways:

June 11: Embracing Variability – using learning sciences, embodied activities, and hands-on approaches to support students with diverse math backgrounds.

June 12: A Data-first Approach to Inference – rethinking statistical inference through bootstrapping, real data, and student-friendly tools in R/Jupyter.

Flyer with full details below!

Honored that CourseKata's co-founder Ji Son has been invited to speak at Harvard’s upcoming convening: Teaching Statistics in the Age of Agentic AI.

Our talk, Why Teach Coding?, explores how AI is reshaping the goals of statistics education and asks what people still need to understand in a world where the dominant narrative is: “AI can do everything.”

This is a hard question. And that's exactly our wheelhouse: teaching hard things.

Join fellow California State University (CSU) instructors preparing to teach introductory statistics with the CourseKata materials!

In this study group, we will provide an overview of CourseKata, work through the interactive textbook, and share curated teaching resources and materials.

Register now here: https://zurl.co/nb75D

New research from CourseKata and collaborators lead by CourseKata instructor and researcher Zhang explores how prior knowledge shapes the effectiveness of embodied learning activities in statistics education.

The study found that students with lower prior knowledge benefited more from actively performing hands-on activities, while students with higher prior knowledge learned more from observing others perform them - supporting the “Performing First Hypothesis.”

A great example of how research can inform more adaptive and personalized learning environments. Check out the published article online: published online at: https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fedu0001021 as well as this showcase article: https://www.growkudos.com/publications/10.1037%25252Fedu0001021/reader

Ready to explore a new way of teaching statistics and data science? Join the CourseKata Study Group for College Instructors—a hands-on, collaborative experience designed to help instructors get started with CourseKata Statistics and Data Science.

You’ll work through activities just like your students would, connect with fellow educators, and discover teaching strategies you can bring directly into your classroom. We’ll meet regularly on Zoom to learn together, share ideas, and build confidence with the curriculum in a supportive community.

Participation is completely free.

Register here: https://zurl.co/a1rI4

🌟 Teacher Spotlight: Lamies Nazzal

This month, we’re spotlighting an instructor who has been teaching with CourseKata since 2022. She’s taught eight sections in the Department of Mathematics at CSU San Bernardino, and has also been supporting our broader teaching community as an office hours host since 2024.

For Lamies, CourseKata offers something fundamentally different from traditional approaches to introductory statistics.

“It allows students to develop a conceptual understanding of statistics and see the purpose of statistical thinking in real-world contexts.”

Rather than focusing on procedures, she helps students think with data—integrating R and real-world applications to build statistical reasoning and practical data skills for a data- and AI-driven world.

One of the most rewarding outcomes has been seeing students become genuinely interested in applying what they learn: “I had several students approach me after taking the course to ask about opportunities to work with me on research. That kind of curiosity and initiative is something I don’t often see in traditional introductory courses, and it speaks to the impact of engaging students in meaningful statistical thinking.”

Thanks, Lamies, for everything you do for your students and the CourseKata community!

A quick reminder that applications are open for CourseKata’s 2026 Summer Institute for College Instructors (July 7–9, 8–10am PT)! Join this free, 3-day virtual workshop to explore research-based teaching, modern computational methods, and how modeling can unify intro stats – plus hands-on experience with real datasets and Jupyter notebooks.

Open to college instructors and grad students – apply in under 5 minutes by June 28 (rolling admissions)!

Apply here: https://zurl.co/1M0wD

Quick reminder to join our Teaching Innovation Potluck happening this Thursday, May 21, 3:30 - 5 PM (PT). Hear directly from our instructors about innovations that help CourseKata work for students.

There’s still time to register here: https://zurl.co/Gho5R