An Analysis of Students’ Learning Outcomes and Experiences in Graduate Biostatistical Methods

Music City Center 

A graduate Introductory Biostatistical Methods course is required for all health sciences related Certificate, Master, and PhD programs at the University of Florida. This is a comprehensive course, with all data analysis being conducted using statistical software, and no prerequisites required. Students in this course have drastically diverse background and skill sets which makes teaching this course challenging. We designed this course based on the belief of "learning by doing" and have been offering it in three different combinations regarding the statistical software used and class delivery format: (SAS, in person), (SAS, online), and (SPSS, online). All classes share the same course materials, assignments, and assessment criteria. This study aims at investigating the association between students' learning outcomes and experiences such as quizzes, assignments, projects, perceived difficulty in completing the course, and the software package used, class modality, and individual characteristic factors such as program, mathematical level, prior exposure to statistics, and software experience. Findings from this study will help navigate potential course reform in the future.

biostatistics education

public health education

statistics education

analysis of learning outcomes

course design

teaching pedagogy 

Section on Teaching of Statistics in the Health Sciences