This online course is run by the Researcher Academy 

The Researcher Academy courses are very popular and the majority are run in both semesters to give you the opportunity to attend at a time of the year that suits you. Semester 1 courses will be available for booking from the second week of October and Semester 2 courses from the second week of February. 

Target Audience: 

This course is part of the M&HS Faculty Training Programme and N-trans training programme, which are convened by the Researcher Academy.  

Postgraduate Research Students and Research Staff in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences only. Researchers who are based in other faculties, and who are undertaking health and medical-related research may access the online lecture capture resources. If you wish to join the practical web-based session, please email bb-ra-training@nottingham.ac.uk stating ‘MHSESDW’ in the subject field, and why your research requires attendance, to request a place, as soon as possible and no later than 10 working days before the course date.  

Description: An introduction to study design including cross-sectional, case-control, and cohorts study designs. In addition to introduce as key epidemiological concepts of chance, bias and confounding.  

Aims/ Objectives: 

 To understand the key features of epidemiological study design 

Learning outcomes 

• Know that there are three alternative explanations to the truth for any study finding 
• Understand the concept of sampling error and chance 
• Understand the concept of bias in epidemiology 
• Know some strategies to employ to minimise major types of bias 
• Understand the concept of confounding in epidemiology 
• Know some methods to deal with confounding and when these are appropriate to use 
• To understand the three basic epidemiological study designs 

• Cross-sectional 
• Case-Control 
• Cohort Studies 

Process: 

Live streamed lecture and practical exercises delivered via Microsoft Teams and Moodle 

The total duration of this course is 3 hours.  

Equipment 

During the live session you will need a laptop/PC, scientific calculator, speakers and ideally a microphone to ask questions/provide responses when appropriate. If you do not have a microphone, then please use the chat feature for questions and discussion. 

You will need to have Microsoft Teams open in a browser/desktop app and viewable at the same time as viewing the course workbook. Please consider how you will participate in advance of joining the session. 

You will need a scientific calculator, that you know how to use, to the session.  A smartphone/app-based calculator may not have sufficient functionality, so we advise that you bring a scientific calculator. 

Booking Conditions 

Our webinars/ online courses are very popular, especially in the current period and we are experiencing large volumes of people on our waiting lists.  

Please do let us know if you would like to cancel your place on this course so we can offer your place to another delegate. 

Please note, attendances for webinars/ online courses will still be recorded and corresponding training points, when shown as available, will be awarded.   

Pre-Requisites Pre-requisites: Participants will need to have a good understanding of odds ratio.