ANALYSIS & DESIGN OF RESEARCH STUDIES (3196)
ORGANISERS: Tansy Edwards, Bonnie Cundill
TIMETABLE SLOT: Term 1, Friday a.m (03 October 2011 to 16 December 2011)
AIM
To introduce the fundamental concepts, principles and techniques required to design a research study, analyse and interpret the data. Examples will be based around research themes appropriate to the MScs. This module provides a suitable foundation for students involved in laboratory and field research on which they can develop their skills for independent research.
OBJECTIVES
By the end of this module, students should be able to:
- list the key considerations and principles in the planning and design of a study;
- construct and interpret data using graphical and tabular methods;
- explain the concept of sampling variation and estimate the sampling variability of a mean and proportion;
- apply knowledge of sampling variation to construct 95% confidence intervals and test hypotheses about population means and proportions;
- choose and perform the appropriate statistical technique for the analysis of means and proportions given the research question and distribution of the data;
- interpret the results of simple statistical analysis and communicate them in a clear, concise and appropriate manner.
CONSITUENCY
This module is for all students on the MSc courses in Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases, Immunology of Infectious Diseases, Tropical Medicine & International Health, Biology & Control of Disease Vectors, Medical Microbiology and Medical Parasitology.
CONCEPTUAL OUTLINE
Week 1 Introduction. Variables and distributions; summarising data
Week 2 Sampling variability of a mean
Week 3 Analysis of quantitative data; comparing two means
Week 4 Sampling variability of proportions
Week 5 Analysis of categorical data; comparing two proportions
Week 6 Data and transformations
Week 7 ANOVA, linear regression and correlation
Week 8 Odds and logistic regression
Week 9 Design of experiments.
Week 10 Revision session; assignment feedback.
Emphasis will be on practical and applied skills. Methods will be illustrated using examples of relevance to ITD students. Each lecture of one hour will be followed by a 90 minute supervised practical session, where the ideas and concepts will be applied by students.
TEACHING STRATEGY
Lectures will introduce topics, and students will then be separated into smaller practical classes. These will take a variety of forms, such as analysis using a calculator, interpretation of computer results, discussion of experimental design and analyses. There will be a small number of computer sessions using STATA to provide students with basic STATA skills.
LEARNING TIME
The module is made up of 100 Notional Learning Hours – 30 hours contact time, 15 hours directed self-study, 25 hours self-directed learning, and 30 hours assessment, review and revision.
ASSESSMENT
Formal assessment will be by written examination in June. A formative assessment based on use of Stata to run additional exercises on a practice database is to be completed by all students towards the end of the module. Solutions will be covered in the revision session in week 10.
