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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold--first, to compare the assessment in two subjects of the Business Administration Degree between Finland and Spain and, second, to test whether there are factors such as gender, age, subject, students' motivation, or preferences that may have an impact on the assessment. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was designed for students enrolled in Statistics and Financial Accounting subjects in the two universities, and multivariate statistical analysis were run. Findings: First, coursework marks are higher than the final examination marks. In both universities and subjects, learning is enhanced by student involvement in coursework activities that are directly related to the learning outcomes. Second, there are differences in assessment by culture, gender, and type of subject. Finnish students are more used to work in teams and apply varied teaching resources than Spanish students. Research limitations/implications: The sample size and the analyses are from two subjects in two universities. More similar studies are needed to generalize the findings. Practical implications: There are several implications for Higher Education. First, university policymakers should design training courses on the good implementation of new assessment processes and criteria in order to align learning objectives and assessment criteria. Second, teachers from different countries should openly discuss their manner of assessment and promote creativity and innovation in their methodologies to assess learning outcomes. Third, students should engage with deeper learning and competence development in subjects. This will contribute to their future employability. Originality/value: Our findings not only question the concept of assessment validity and the compulsory relationship between assessment and learning but also provide suggestions to improve assessment criteria.

Statistical literacy is complex and multifaceted. In every country, education and numeracy are a function of a multitude of factors including culture, history, and societal norms. Nevertheless, since the launch of the International Statistical Poster Competition (ISLP) in 1994, a number of patterns have emerged to suggest there are some common or universal success factors in running statistical literacy competitions involving schools, universities, statistical offices, and many other institutions. This paper outlines some of those factors, such as institutional cooperation, celebrating participation and success, improvement of statistical literacy in the local schools, support for teachers, the involvement of national statistics institutes, and use of technology. These factors have been identified from our own experience running the competition and from articles submitted to the ISLP newsletters. Statistical literacy is a complex phenomenon, and so this is neither an exhaustive list of key factors nor a formula for success, but rather an overview of recurring themes across countries participating in the competition around the world.

This design-based research project focuses on documenting statistical learning among 16-17-year-old Finnish upper secondary school students (N = 78) in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. One novel value of this study is in reporting the shift from teacher-led mathematical teaching to autonomous small-group learning in statistics. The main aim of this study is to examine how student collaboration occurs in learning statistics in a CSCL environment. The data include material from videotaped classroom observations and the researcher's notes. In this paper, the inter-subjective phenomena of students' interactions in a CSCL environment are analysed by using a contact summary sheet (CSS). The development of the multi-dimensional coding procedure of the CSS instrument is presented. Aptly selected video episodes were transcribed and coded in terms of conversational acts, which were divided into non-task-related and task-related categories to depict students' levels of collaboration. The results show that collaborative learning (CL) can facilitate cohesion and responsibility and reduce students' feelings of detachment in our classless, periodic school system. The interactive .pdf material and collaboration in small groups enable statistical learning. It is concluded that CSCL is one possible method of promoting statistical teaching. CL using interactive materials seems to foster and facilitate statistical learning processes.

This paper attempts to clarify how a Web technology-based approach (eStudy approach) affects students' attitudes towards (1) studying mathematics/statistics, and (2) perceiving the very idea of the eStudy approach. A group of Finnish polytechnic students (n=53) participated in an experimental course in mathematics/statistics. Attitude questionnaires were presented to the students at the beginning (pre-test) and end (post-test) of the study course. The effects were measured by the attitude changes from pre-test to post-test. The attitudes towards studying mathematics/statistics showed neither overall nor between-group changes (groupings by gender, ICT-orientation, mathematical background). The overall attitudes towards the eStudy approach developed in the negative direction. However, significant between-group differences were found: the attitudes of (1) female students, (2) students with a higher ICT-orientation, and (3) students with a stronger mathematical background developed negatively while the attitudes of (4) male students, (5) students with a lower ICT-orientation, and (6) students with a weaker mathematical background developed positively. Web technology seems not to be a particularly attractive platform for studies of mathematics/statistics, holding different attractions for different student groups; those with a better basis for studying the given content seem to be less attracted by it. (Contains 4 tables.)