Using R as a Simulation Tool in Teaching Introductory Statistics

The use of computer simulations in the teaching of introductory statistics can help undergraduate students understand difficult or abstract statistics concepts. The free software environment R is a good candidate for computer simulations since it allows users to add additional functionality by defining new functions. In this paper, we illustrate how computer simulations with R are used in statistics classrooms and student homework assignments by examples. These examples include sampling distributions and the central limit theorem, the t-distributions, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, regression analysis and nonparametric tests.