A Tool to Visualise and Interact with Probability Density Functions - Development and Case Study

This article is an overview of the design, implementation and testing of a tool to visualise and interact with probability density functions. The tool is a desktop application implemented entirely in Python using the tkinter library for the graphical user interface. The project was undertaken as part of a collaboration between Mathematics and Computer Science. The goal of the application is to provide a simple user interface for teaching staff and students to visualise and interact with probability density functions. The application should help improve students’ understanding of the concepts involved and its simple design should reduce the complexity barrier that often faces users when using technology in the classroom. Following initial testing, a variety of teaching staff were involved with trialling the tool, together with student volunteers from a first-year and second-year statistics module at Swansea University. Feedback was obtained and evaluated from all participants. For the teaching staff group, we found that all four participants strongly agreed that the application is easy to use and that the user interface was not distracting. Furthermore, all teaching staff stated that they would consider using the application in their own teaching and all would recommend using the application to a colleague/friend. For the student volunteer group, all twelve participants either agreed or strongly agreed with the statements that the application is easy to use, useful and not distracting. Similar to the teaching staff group, all the student participants stated that they would consider using the application in their own learning and all would recommend the application to a friend. A full analysis of the survey results is provided in the Feedback section.