Philip Stark

• Complete online, interactive text for introductory statistics for non-technical majors
• Used in the online course for the University of California and for edX course
• Runs with a browser, no proprietary software required
• 33 chapters with video clips and interactive exercises
• For more information and to access

This is a highly engaging “textbook” that makes extensive use of the capability for interactive instruction with current software, computers, and the Internet. Although it requires an internet connection, the students need only an up-to-date browser (Firefox recommended) and so there is no need to buy or install any other software. The author has been developing the course material for more than 15 years, and it is both stable and reliable. It resides on a server in the Statistics Department at UC Berkeley and will be there for the foreseeable future.

Each chapter has a number of embedded exercises that provide immediate feedback. Also, there is a separate set of chapter exercises without visible answers. These can be assigned and collected to be graded by hand. Instructors interested in having the exercises individually generated and then graded automatically should contact the author for guidance on setting up a server for that purpose or to use the Berkeley server.

From the preface:

Many of the examples and datasets for exercises are real—they arose in my consulting work, in experiments I am familiar with, or they are in the public domain (for example, data on GMAT scores, undergraduate GPA, and MBA GPA). Many of the inference problems are real, too. For example, the Kassel Dowsing Experiment is a real test of the ability of dowsers to determine whether water is running in a buried pipe; the derivation of Fisher’s exact test is in the context of determining whether targeted Web advertising works, a problem I have studied for a consulting client; the case studies about employment discrimination and theft of trade secrets derive from my work as an expert witness.