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Hi Margaret. I was at the OU in the 1970s when this question arose for the early generations of OU statistics courses. I can’t say there was consensus or coherence. But my summary of the outcome would be as follows. 1. BOTH types of courses are needed (math/stats AND 'service') 2. Stats specialists should take BOTH courses, so they get a good grounding in practical and databased issues. 3. The service course should be developed with strong input from non specialists. (We had input from all six faculties despite opposition from mathematicians - hence the acronym MADESt. This was eventually trimmed to MDST242 because the OU computer could not deal with more than four faculties on one course! MDST survived/evolved for 2+ decades and I think still has the record for OU longevity.) 4. We followed a structure of theme + topic (see C.Wright Mills). Units 1, 6, 11 and 16 were core/link units; they stressed central themes/assessment/TV etc., etc. The others (2-5, 7-10, and 12-15, called Blocks A, B and C) had individual topics - economics, education, biology/child development. 5. The OU was a world-leader in home learning; MDST could be adapted for other institutions. We tried this for Polys but before we got things together, Polys had been abolished! Cathy Marsh's "*Exploring Data" *was another off-shoot of MDST, which was road-tested by me and Cathy and Cambridge sociology students in 1979. Things have changed since the 1970s I hear but I think it is well worth considering the above structure still. Several other allstatters were centrally involved in MDST242 and I feel sure their inferences will differ from mine. I'd be interested to hear. JOHN BIBBY On Sat, 6 Feb 2021 at 17:10, MACDOUGALL Margaret < [log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hello > > At the Open University in the UK, some modules in statistics are delivered > concurrently for mathematics and statistics students and as service courses > for students of other disciplines. I would be interested to learn from list > members who are familiar with courses in statistics at other institutions > that are organised to be run concurrently for both specialist and > non-specialist learners without reliance on disciplinary-specific > adaptations and can advise on any published material reporting on this work. > > Best wishes > Margaret > > > > The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, > with registration number SC005336. > > You may leave the list at any time by sending the command > > SIGNOFF allstat > > to [log in to unmask], leaving the subject line blank. > You may leave the list at any time by sending the command SIGNOFF allstat to [log in to unmask], leaving the subject line blank.