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

"Thank you very much for the wonderful workshop at Kent State University. I really enjoyed it. I particularly like the way you organize the course, starting with the concept, then applications and examples, and finally common mistakes."

Jingzhen (Ginger) Yang, PhD, MPH - Associate Professor, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, College of Public Health, Kent State University


"I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of Dr. Michael Borenstein's online workshop. He has a unique gift of taking seemingly complex material and explaining it so intuitively. I am already applying the principles that he discusses in his modules to my research during medical school and residency. I would enthusiastically recommend this workshop to anyone looking to understand the methods of meta-analysis as well as how to interpret meta-analyses in the context of a systematic review."

Moez Karim Aziz, MD, MS - Resident Physician, Baylor College of Medicine

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