This nine week course (4.5 ECTS, 14 hours per week) provides an introduction to statistical methodology. A number of statistical techniques are covered that are relevant for practical biomedical data analysis.
This course covers the concepts of statistical estimation (point and interval estimation) and testing. It focuses on methods developed for categorical data, in particular binary data, and quantitative data, in particular normally distributed data. The course covers, simple linear regression, correlation, one way analysis of variance, analysis of contingency tables and non-parametric statistics. Furthermore, it introduces (multiple) linear regression and (multiple) logistic regression.
The theory will be presented during web lectures and you will have the opportunity to practice your skills through exercises, discussions, quizzes, assignments and case studies of realistic and real data.
See Course Manual document: Course Manual BOB 2025
Course goals
At the end of the course the student:
1. has knowledge of the role that statistics plays in academic research;
2. has knowledge of basic statistical techniques that are used to analyze data, and knows the conditions under which they are appropriate;
3. has insight in which techniques are applicable in which situation;
4. can apply these techniques by hand and by using statistical software (SPSS and/or R);
5. is able to interpret the results from the statistical analysis;
6. can report these results in the context of the research question.
Although active statistical knowledge is not a prerequisite, we expect some basic knowledge of statistics and mathematics acquired through, for example, courses in biostatistics in the bachelor program or self-study.
It is assumed that you
• are familiar with the concepts of a “population” versus a “sample”
• can interpret data presented in the form of a histogram, boxplot, frequency table, scatterplot or contingency table
• can calculate and interpret from a sequence of numbers: the mean, median, variance, standard deviation, range, interquartile range, standard error of the mean
• are familiar with the concepts probability and probability distributions (in particular the standard normal distribution).
If you want to refresh your basic knowledge we recommend one of the following sources of information (see also literature/study material):
1. Chapters 1 – 5 of the book of W.W. Daniel
2. Chapters 1 – 3 of the book of P. Armitage, G. Berry and J.N.S. Matthews
3. Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 of the book by M.C. Whitlock and D. Schluter
4. Chapters 1 – 6 of the book of J.H. Zar
5. Chapters 1, 2, 3 (first 3 paragraphs), 11, 13 of the book of B. Baldi and D.S. Moore
6. Module I, II, III, V of the very advanced online textbook Online Statbook
7. Modules 1 and 2 (e-book) and/or module 1 (exercises) of CAST (Computer-Assisted Statistics Textbooks) that consists of a collection of electronic textbooks (e-books). Under “Core e-books”, choose the “Introductory statistics e-book (biometrics)”, chapters 1 and 2 and section 3.1. These can be downloaded from the CAST website for free.
8. Chapters 1 – 4 of Field, Discovering Statistics Using SPSS, 5th edition. SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017. Chapter 3 provides some early insights in the workings of (the statistical program) SPSS. SPSS will be used during the course.
In LU-0 there will be a test available for testing your basic knowledge on statistics and mathematics. It is then also possible to ask questions with respect to the basic kn
During the course all the transparencies of the web lectures and the exercises (with answers) of the learning units will be online available. Besides this course material you can use also one of the following statistical books:
1. B. Baldi and D.S. Moore, The Practice of Statistics in the Life Sciences, stat 4th Edition. W.H. Freeman and Company, 2014.
2. W.W. Daniel, Biostatistics: Basic Concepts and Methodology for the Health Sciences, International student version, 9th Edition. John Wiley & Sons, 2010.
3. P. Armitage, G. Berry and J.N.S. Matthews, Statistical Methods in Medical Research, 4th Edition. Wiley-Blackwell, 2001.
4. M.C. Whitlock and D. Schluter. The Analysis of Biological Data, 2nd Edition. Roberts and Company Publishers, 2015.
5. J.H. Zar, Biostatistical Analysis, 5th Edition. Pearson Education International, 2010.
The first two books have more medical examples, whereas the next two books more biological. The last book has more life sciences examples, but in contrast with the other books discusses less statistical methods.
These reference books remain useful long after you have completed the course. They can be obtained from scientific bookstores. You are not obliged to use any of these books during the course.
During the course there are several activities in which you can participate.
• Weblectures
The statistical topics are explained in weblectures. Some of the lectures are a bit too long to watch in one go. It can be good to pause the lectures so you can digest the information presented. In the activities with lectures, we give an advise on what moment you can best pause. Some of the lectures contain quizzes in which you can test whether you have understood the theory. It is up to you whether you want to make use of these quizzes. They are not mandatory. But we do recommend to make them, as they are easy tools to test your comprehension of the theory that was discussed in the lecture.
• Apply your knowledge
In every Learning Unit you will find multiple activities named “Apply your knowledge”. Usually, these activities follow after a web lecture. There is a document with exercises and cases related to the topics previously explained, accompanied with an answer document. If SPSS or R is used to answer the questions, you can find the syntax and the output of these programs also in this answer document. There are also “How to in SPSS” and “How to in R” documents available. You do not have to hand in your solutions to the exercises and cases, but you can use them to practice with the statistical programs and the topics which are being discussed.
• Test your knowledge
At the end of every Learning Unit you will find a quiz to test your knowledge of that particular learning units including previous learning units. A part of the questions of the quiz are representative exam questions. It is up to you whether you want to make use of these quizzes. They are not mandatory. But we do recommend to make them, as they are easy tools to test your comprehension of the theory that was discussed sofar in this course.
• Discussions
Sometimes we will add statements about a statistical matter or a news item to the forums so you can discuss it with your fellow participants. You can choose
Transcript of records
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
