Topics included in this course:

Understanding and defining the purpose of statistical measurements and studies and the necessity of proper interpretation

Interpret and distinguish differences between experimental and observational studies:

Students will understand the differences between: reliability, validity, bias, and variability

Random variables

Determine the difference between categorical, continuous, discrete and other measurement variables

Identify the different experimental variables:

Response

Explanatory

Confounding

Interacting

Lurking

Observational Studies – Identify the usage and importance of the different elements

Randomization

Correlation

Types of observational studies

Case-control

Retrospective study

Prospective study

Efficacy: correct and incorrect interpretation and usage

Experimental Design - Usage and importance of the different elements:

Treatments

Control groups, placebo and placebo effect

Experimental and quasi experimental design

Causation

Sampling – Purpose and importance of random sampling

Terminology: population, sampling frame, sample

Sampling method

Simple random sampling

Stratified random sampling

Systematic random sampling

Other sampling methods

Sampling variability

Behavior of sample proportions and means

Descriptive statistics

Statistics versus parameter

Measures of central tendency

Mean, median and mode

Measures of disbursements

Variance, standard deviation, percentiles and quartiles

Graphical displays

aphical displays

Continuous data: histogram, stem plot, box plot, scatterplot and line graph

Categorical data: bar graph, pie chart and pictogram.