Agenda  »  Learning objectives

Course learning objectives

Basic course

The objective of this course is to introduce students to the logic of a basic meta-analysis and teach them how to perform a meta-analysis, critique a meta-analysis, and avoid common mistakes in meta-analysis.  By the end of the course students will understand

  • The goals of a meta-analysis
  • How to choose a statistical model
  • How to choose an effect-size index
  • How to enter data for a simple meta-analysis
  • How to estimate the mean effect size
  • How to quantify and understand heterogeneity in effects
  • How to report the results of the analysis
  • How to create forest plots
  • How to create plots that show the distribution of true effects
  • How to avoid common mistakes in all these areas

Advanced course

The objective of this course is to teach students advanced issues in meta-analysis. By the end of the course the student will understand

  • How to use subgroup analyses to compare the impact of a treatment in sets of studies that enrolled different populations or employed different variants of an intervention (analogous to ANOVA in a primary study)
  • How to use meta-regression to assess the unique impact of continuous or categorical covariates on the effect size (analogous to multiple-regression in a primary study)
  • How to assess the potential impact of publication bias on the analysis
  • What to do when there are only a small number of studies in the analysis
  • How to avoid common mistakes in all these areas
researchers
Testimonials

"Good comprehensive explanation of difficult concepts. Pre-reading of the Meta-Analysis book, classroom discussion and demonstrations make this course very powerful! Thank you."

Dr. Tahir Saleem - Bayer Healthcare


"A succession of 'Aha' moments! Very good course!"

Julia Schröders - Umeå Centre for Global Health Research, Umeå, Sweden

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