0 About these materials
Purpose
- These materials are designed to give you a background into the core concepts of statistics, statistical thinking and it's jargon.
Format
- There are 15 short videos of 2-20min duration (the majority are no longer than 10 minutes).
- The videos are interspersed with quizzes, mainly multiple choice questions, as a formative assessment to help you develop your understanding of the material covered in the video and assess your progress
- There is a list of statistical concepts and a list of connections with other material at the beginning of each topic. This information tries to distil key ideas in a nut shell and help you to link topics with other elements of statistics and research methods.
- Each video comes with a set of intended learning outcomes.
How to use these materials and some tips
- You should, as a minimum, watch all of the pre-requisite videos at least once.
- Some videos are fast-paced, so use the pause button to take notes.
- Do not expect to understand all the material in a single viewing, expect to pause, watch again and reflect.
- If you do get stuck then move on. Some ideas are picked up again in more depth in later videos, so it may just take a little more time or a different context or explanation to help you understand. Also try the quizzes, they may help.
- Take responsibility for your learning by checking against the learning outcomes for each video and self-directing.
Other text book resources
- There is no solitary book to accompany these materials, but the following may be useful and have been referred to in elements of this resource:
"The following is a classic, it is fairly hard going and a little dry, but a very carefully written and thorough text. Possibly a useful reference book:"
Altman DG. (1991). Practical statistics for medical research. Chapman & Hall: London
"This book is useful for seeing the application of statistical ideas in science, particularly in experiments:
Diggle P, Chetwynd A. 2011. Statistics and Scientific Method: An introduction for students and researchers. OUP
"This book is very simple, it covers the bare minimum to understand or get a feel for different statistical concepts. A very useful starting place:"
Harris and Taylor. 2014. Medical Statistics made easy. 3rd edition. Scion: Banbury
"This is a comprehensive and clearly written book covering all the statistical topics in the course except study design. There is some formulae:"
Kirkwood BR & Sterne JAC. 2003. Essential Medical Statistics. Second Edition. Blackwell Science
"This is a useful book to dip into, consisting of many stand- alone chapters. It also highlights key statistical errors made in the literature:"
Motulsky H. 2014. Intuitive Biostatistics: A non-mathematical guide to statistical thinking. OUP
"This is a good reference book that is very clearly structured and covers most of the topics covered in this course.
Petrie A, Sabin C. 2009. Medical Statistics at a glance. 3rd edition. Wiley-Blackwell.
"This book is free as a pdf. Good overview for statistical elements:"
OpenIntro Statistics. 2nd Edition. (www.openintro.org/stat/textbook.php)
"This is a well written book mainly for students of epidemiology; it covers many of the aspects of study design in the course:"
Webb P & Bain C. Essential Epidemiology: An introduction for students and health professionals. Cambridge.