Students' experiences and perceptions of using a virtual environment for project-based assessment in an online introductory statistics course

This paper evaluated students' experiences and perceptions of using an online simulated virtual environment, known as the Island, for project-based work within an online master's level introductory statistics course. Forty-two students responded to an Island questionnaire which rated their level of agreement to three aspects of using the Island - engagement, ease of use and contributes to understanding. Students were also asked to provide qualitative comments and five students participated in semi-structured interviews. Qualitative feedback was analysed to help explain the results from the quantitative questionnaire. In conclusion. perceptions of the use of the Island for project-based assessment were very pasitive. Qualitative feedback provided insight into how the Island may help to develop students' statistical thinking.