ShareStats: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education

Kirsten Namesnik; Marike Polak; Niels Smits; Joukje Swinkels; Lidia Arends; Dimitris Pavlopoulos; Anastasios Psychogyiopoulos; Oliver Lindemann; Sharon Klinkenberg; Marleen de Moor

doi:10.1111/test.12399

ShareStats: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education

Kirsten Namesnik^*
, Marike Polak
, Niels Smits
, Joukje Swinkels
, Lidia Arends
, Dimitris Pavlopoulos
, Anastasios Psychogyiopoulos
, Oliver Lindemann
, Sharon Klinkenberg
, Marleen de Moor

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Gaining knowledge of statistics is important in most (under)graduate programs within the social and behavioral sciences and requires repeated study by students, highlighting the need for good practice materials. We describe the development of an open item bank of statistics exercises by a community of instructors from Dutch universities: the ShareStats project. We describe how we developed the item bank by reusing existing statistics exercises from various institutions. The 5000+ exercises are in Dutch or English and are all quality-checked, categorized, and shared under a Creative Commons License in a single format, which allows for easy export to online learning and testing systems. We describe how we built a professional community of statistics instructors in the Netherlands, which was actively involved in developing the item bank. By continuing to invest in the online item bank and the professional community, we aim to inspire other educators to contribute to open educational resources.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	129–138
Number of pages	10
Journal	Teaching Statistics
Volume	47
Issue number	2
Early online date	19 Feb 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/test.12399
Publication status	Published - Jun 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Teaching Statistics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Teaching Statistics Trust.

Funding

In this article, we describe the development of , an openly available item bank of statistics practice and test items created by a community of instructors in higher education in the Netherlands. The aim of the ShareStats project, which was financed through a grant by the Dutch Ministry of Science, Education, and Culture, was twofold: First, we aimed to provide a freely accessible comprehensive collection of statistics exercises. These statistics exercises are offered in plain text (Markdown) format along with an open and free software tool (the exams package of the statistical software environment R, called \u2018R/exams\u2019 ), to be compatible with commonly used learning management systems (LMSs) and testing systems, such as Canvas, Blackboard, TestVision, and Grasple. Second, we aimed to build a professional community of statistics instructors from higher education institutions in the Netherlands. Through collaboration and exchange within this community throughout the project, we achieved a higher quality of the learning materials and improved the user\u2010friendliness of the item bank. ShareStats

Funders
Dutch Ministry of Science, Education, and Culture

Keywords

itembank
statistics education
ShareStats

Access to Document

10.1111/test.12399Licence: CC BY-NC

Persistent URL (handle)

Persistent link

Cite this

Namesnik, K., Polak, M., Smits, N., Swinkels, J., Arends, L., Pavlopoulos, D., Psychogyiopoulos, A., Lindemann, O., Klinkenberg, S., & de Moor, M. (2025). ShareStats: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education. Teaching Statistics, 47(2), 129–138. https://doi.org/10.1111/test.12399

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title = "ShareStats: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education",

abstract = "Gaining knowledge of statistics is important in most (under)graduate programs within the social and behavioral sciences and requires repeated study by students, highlighting the need for good practice materials. We describe the development of an open item bank of statistics exercises by a community of instructors from Dutch universities: the ShareStats project. We describe how we developed the item bank by reusing existing statistics exercises from various institutions. The 5000+ exercises are in Dutch or English and are all quality-checked, categorized, and shared under a Creative Commons License in a single format, which allows for easy export to online learning and testing systems. We describe how we built a professional community of statistics instructors in the Netherlands, which was actively involved in developing the item bank. By continuing to invest in the online item bank and the professional community, we aim to inspire other educators to contribute to open educational resources.",

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note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 The Author(s). Teaching Statistics published by John Wiley \& Sons Ltd on behalf of Teaching Statistics Trust.",

year = "2025",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1111/test.12399",

language = "English",

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Namesnik, K, Polak, M, Smits, N, Swinkels, J, Arends, L, Pavlopoulos, D, Psychogyiopoulos, A, Lindemann, O, Klinkenberg, S & de Moor, M 2025, 'ShareStats: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education', Teaching Statistics, vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 129–138. https://doi.org/10.1111/test.12399

ShareStats: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education. / Namesnik, Kirsten; Polak, Marike; Smits, Niels et al.
In: Teaching Statistics, Vol. 47, No. 2, 06.2025, p. 129–138.

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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AU - Swinkels, Joukje

AU - Arends, Lidia

AU - Pavlopoulos, Dimitris

AU - Psychogyiopoulos, Anastasios

AU - Lindemann, Oliver

AU - Klinkenberg, Sharon

AU - de Moor, Marleen

PY - 2025/6

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AB - Gaining knowledge of statistics is important in most (under)graduate programs within the social and behavioral sciences and requires repeated study by students, highlighting the need for good practice materials. We describe the development of an open item bank of statistics exercises by a community of instructors from Dutch universities: the ShareStats project. We describe how we developed the item bank by reusing existing statistics exercises from various institutions. The 5000+ exercises are in Dutch or English and are all quality-checked, categorized, and shared under a Creative Commons License in a single format, which allows for easy export to online learning and testing systems. We describe how we built a professional community of statistics instructors in the Netherlands, which was actively involved in developing the item bank. By continuing to invest in the online item bank and the professional community, we aim to inspire other educators to contribute to open educational resources.

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ShareStats: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Persistent URL (handle)

Other files and links

Fingerprint

SHARESTATS: Creating an open statistics assessment itembank

Cite this

ShareStats: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education: An open statistics item bank developed by a community of instructors in higher education

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Persistent URL (handle)

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

SHARESTATS: Creating an open statistics assessment itembank

Cite this