Contact Information

Instructor: Dr. Jim Lowe and Benjamin Blair
Email: jlowe@illinois.edu, bblair2@illinois.edu

Course Description

Application of statistical methods to epidemiology, clinical and diagnostic medicine, and laboratory biomedical experiments. Topics include data collection and organization, data cleaning, data visualization, descriptive statistics, reliability, sample size estimation, analysis of group differences, correlation and linear regression. Emphasizes use of computerized statistical software in biomedical data analysis.

Learning Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Identify data types and organize and navigate the data to facilitate analysis of the data.
• Describe data using appropriate metrics.
• Determine if a difference exists between two or more groups though the application of the appropriate test.
• Identify relationships between two or more variables though the application of the appropriate test.
• Design a simple prospective study to determine the difference between two groups.

Course Topics

• Data types and introduction to R
• Data organization
• Data cleaning
• Data navigation
• Describing data
• Data visualization
• Inferential statistics
• Differences between two groups - normal distributions, non-normal distributions, binomial
• Correlations
• Linear regression
• Multiple linear regression
• Study design
• Power analysis

Mode of Teaching

All course materials will be accessed via the internet. Students may access the course at https://compass2g.illinois.edu. All students will be expected to commit themselves to the following learning activities:

• Watch video lectures.
• Complete and submit homework assignments on time.
• Attend live sessions.
• Complete other assigned learning activities.

Course Requirements

Required Textbooks

• There is no required textbook.

Technical Requirements

• A reliable device.
• High-speed internet connection: e.g. DSL or Cable.
• Supported web browser: e.g. a recent version of Google Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.
• Access Microsoft Office 365 (Net ID and password needed) & have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed.
• Minimum technical skills: At a minimum, students must possess the ability to navigate Blackboard.  This includes accessing course content, posting to a discussion board, and completing online assignments, quizzes, self-assessments, and exams.