- 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:
- A.Students will understand the differences between: reliability, validity, bias, and variability
- B.Random variables
- i.Determine the difference between categorical, continuous, discrete and other measurement variables
- ii.Identify the different experimental variables:
- Response
- Explanatory
- Confounding
- Interacting
- Lurking
- C.Observational Studies – Identify the usage and importance of the different elements
- i.Randomization
- ii.Correlation
- iii.Types of observational studies
- Case-control
- Retrospective study
- Prospective study
- iv.Efficacy: correct and incorrect interpretation and usage
- D.Experimental Design - Usage and importance of the different elements:
- i.Treatments
- ii.Control groups, placebo and placebo effect
- iii.Experimental and quasi experimental design
- iv.Causation
- Sampling – Purpose and importance of random sampling
- A.Terminology: population, sampling frame, sample
- B.Sampling method
- i.Simple random sampling
- ii.Stratified random sampling
- iii.Systematic random sampling
- iv.Other sampling methods
- C.Sampling variability
- i.Behavior of sample proportions and means
- Descriptive statistics
- A.Statistics versus parameter
- B.Measures of central tendency
- i.Mean, median and mode
- C.Measures of disbursements
- i.Variance, standard deviation, percentiles and quartiles
- D.Graphical displays
- aphical displays
- i.Continuous data: histogram, stem plot, box plot, scatterplot and line graph
- ii.Categorical data: bar graph, pie chart and pictogram.