Target Audience

Early stage postgraduate research students

Early career researchers

The course is aimed at researchers in the Faculties of Science and Medical & Health Sciences and illustrated with biological examples.

Pre-requisites

This course covers general principles of research design and basic statistics.

Process

 A set of two half-day sessions involving presentation, participation and discussion. The first session covers study design and descriptive statistics. The second session provides an introduction to inferential statistics, with an opportunity to perform 'hands-on' analysis with a statistical package popular within the Life Sciences (Prism)

Description

The course will cover:

• your study aims and the type of study you are designing
• random error and bias
• the importance of experimental control
• the importance of sampling and different type of random sampling
• biological or natural variation and its significance
• the types of data you will collect and how these influence how you might present/handle them
• basic statistical terms and their meaning
• opportunities to calculate basic quantities with a pocket calculator
• the experimental hypothesis and the null hypothesis
• probability and significance
• comparing and relating sets of data
• scientific fraud.

The course consists of two half day sessions. Please remember that you'll need to attend both days of the presentation.

Although this course is aimed at biology-based researchers, it is useful for anyone who wants to understand study design, data collection and analysis, and to use basic statistical terms and ideas with more confidence. The course covers a range of topics, including hypothesis testing, parametric and non-parametric statistical tests and measures of location (mean, mode, median) and dispersion (variance, standard deviation, standard error).

Aims

To identify key issues in planning and executing good study design; to use basic statistical terms for describing, comparing and relating sets of data.

Objectives

By the end of the course you should be able to

• formulate clearly the aim(s) of your study
• appreciate the scientific method of experimentation
• appreciate the main factors which contribute to a good study design
• distinguish between dependent, independent and random variables
• understand and feel comfortable about calculating measures of location (mean, mode and median) and dispersion (variance, standard deviation, standard error)
• appreciate what is meant by a 'normal distribution' and distinguish parametric and non-parametric statistical tests
• understand the basic ideas behind hypothesis testing
• identify the most appropriate statistical tests, based on a rational analysis of the type of data presented

Feedback from participants

"Very well taught course with excellent examples. Very easy to understand."

"This course was the first time that statistics was clear to me. I wish the course was longer."

"It was good as a 'refresher' course for me."

"Very well explained, in a simple manner with good examples."