University of Galway

Course Module Information

Course Modules

Semester 1 | Credits: 5

This course will introduce students to statistical concepts and thinking by providing a practical introduction to data analysis. The importance and practical usefulness of statistics in biomedical and clinical environments will be demonstrated through a large array of case studies. Students attending this course will be encouraged and equipped to apply simple statistical techniques to design, analyse and interpret studies in a wide range of disciplines. Introduction to Biostatistics Statistics can be a very important and interesting subject as it is an integral part of almost all areas of practical research both inside and outside the University. The main theme of this course for students is that they should meet and understand many of the basic statistical ideas they may meet and use in their future research. The emphasis throughout the course is on the application of Statistics and will rely heavily on a statistical computing package called MINITAB. The course concentrates on how, in any research context, to pose answerable and generalisable questions, design an experiment to answer such, carry out the appropriate statistical procedures on the resulting data from the experiment and finally to interpret and report the conclusions/answers to the questions posed on the basis of this analysis.
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes
  1. Understand the key concept of variability;
  2. Understand the ideas of population, sample, parameter, statistic and probability;
  3. Understand simple ideas of point estimation;
  4. Recognise the additional benefits of calculating interval estimates for unknown parameters and be able to interpret interval estimates correctly;
  5. Carry out a variety of commonly used hypothesis tests
  6. Understand the difference between paired and independent data and be able to recognise both in practice;
  7. Understand the aims and desirable features of a designed experiment;
  8. Calculate the sample size needed for one and two sample problems.
Assessments
  • Written Assessment (70%)
  • Continuous Assessment (30%)
Teachers
The above information outlines module GS507: "Statistical Methods for Research" and is valid from 2019 onwards.
Note: Module offerings and details may be subject to change.