Teaching Statistics to Medical Researchers Using an Online Program: Experience from the Harvard Catalyst Certificate in Applied Biostatistics

• Activity Number: 95
• Type: Roundtables
• Date/Time: Monday, August 4, 2014 : 7:00 AM to 8:15 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Teaching of Statistics in the Health Sciences
• Author(s): Brian Healy*+
• Companies: Massachusetts General Hospital
• Keywords: On-line education ; Medical researchers

Abstract

The importance of statistics in medical research has been increasingly recognized, and many medical researchers have begun to seek additional education related to statistics. Since medical researchers are often already working, traditional courses may not be the optimal approach to reach this audience. To address this need, Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center (Catalyst) has developed an online course that provides an introduction to the most commonly used statistical techniques in medical research. The program is a 35-week course that includes weekly two-hour lectures and an associated practicum to teach how to implement analyses in a statistical software package. Students who complete a sufficient number of assignments receive a certificate of attendance. Based on follow-up of students from the first two years, we found that students who participate in the course completely online are equally likely to remain in the course as students who attend the lecture in person. Using randomized experiments, we also have learned about factors associated with retention, including the importance of reminder emails and the limited value of live chats for the lectures.