Technology Innovations in Statistics Education

Coverage of distributions, such as normal and t (among others), is prevalent in courses focused on probability and/or statistics irrespective of the discipline. In this article, we discuss existing software that can be used to create plots of univariate distributions and highlight several limitations of these tools. We then introduce a free, web-based, point-and-click application that we developed to address these limitations. The application is designed for both instructor and student use and supports interactive exploration of distributions. Visualizations of distributions can support conceptual understanding, and hands-on interactions with such tools can help students develop deeper insight into distributional behavior. To facilitate classroom implementation, we provide sample activities that can be incorporated at the introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels.