Online Discussion Forums: Quality Interactions for Reducing Statistics Anxiety in Graduate Education Students

Fully online graduate education courses/programs incorporate faculty-student online discussion interactions as a mainstay component for instruction. Virtually all graduate education students are required to enroll in at least one graduate statistics course. Historically, students perceive statistics as anxiety producing, and impossible for successful completion. Previous literature on statistics anxiety in graduate education students has primarily focused on traditional face-to-face learning environments. This study emphasized the continuing need for educational researchers to examine statistics anxiety, especially within online learning environments. The current study explored the use of online discussion forums with graduate education students enrolled in a required fully online graduate statistics course. An integrated conceptual framework focused on online discussion quality constructs relative to statistics anxiety constructs generated the major research question: "What are the interrelationships among students' online discussion quality ratings and students' statistics anxiety levels within an online graduate education statistics course?" The study empirically examined faculty-students' quality of discussion content, interactions, and participation within online discussions relative to students' statistics anxiety levels using a non-experimental pre-post one group research design. Data analyses involved research assistants matching 68 graduate education students' online discussion assessment ratings of discussion content, interactions, and participation with students' corresponding statistics anxiety subscale scores. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to empirically analyze interrelationships among online discussion quality ratings and statistics anxiety subscale scores with results identifying specific types of discussion qualities positively encouraging students' attitudes toward learning statistics. Pre- and post-statistics anxiety assessments completed by study participants were analyzed using the dependent t-test procedure with results indicating significant reduced average statistics anxiety levels after completing the online graduate education statistics course. Implications of the findings are pertinent for online graduate statistics educators, researchers, and assessment professionals.