5.74 Online learning. The U.S. Department of Education released a report on online learning stating that blended instruction, a combination of conventional face-to-face and online instruction, appears more effective in terms of student performance than conventional teaching.22 You decide to poll incoming students at your institution to see if they prefer courses that blend face-to-face instruction with online components. In an SRS of 400 incoming students, you find that 373 prefer this type of course.

  1. (a) What is the sample proportion of incoming students at your school who prefer this type of blended instruction?

  2. (b) Assume the population proportion for all students nationwide is 85%. Assuming this is true for your institution too, what is the standard deviation of ?

  3. (c) Using the 68–95–99.7 rule, you would expect to fall between what two percents about 95% of the time?

  4. (d) Based on your result in part (a), do you think that the incoming students at your institution prefer this type of instruction more, less, or about the same as students nationally? Explain your answer.