Creating Community in a Data Science Classroom

TL;DR

This paper presents practical techniques for fostering a sense of community in large data science classrooms, emphasizing personal engagement and structured activities to enhance student connection and learning.

Contribution

It introduces a set of specific, actionable practices for creating community in large data science courses, based on the author's successful experiences.

Findings

Improved student engagement and connection

Enhanced classroom community and participation

Positive impact on student learning experiences

Abstract

A community is a collection of people who know and care about each other. The vast majority of college courses are not communities. This is especially true of statistics and data science courses, both because our classes are larger and because we are more likely to lecture. However, it is possible to create a community in your classroom. This article offers an idiosyncratic set of practices for creating community. I have used these techniques successfully in first and second semester statistics courses with enrollments ranging from 40 to 120. The key steps are knowing names, cold calling, classroom seating, a shallow learning curve, Study Halls, Recitations and rotating-one-on-one final project presentations.