Using & Teaching Stata in a semester-length Introduction to Biostatistics Course

1. Using & Teaching Stata in a semester-length Introduction to Biostatistics Course Clinton J Thompson; Stephen C Alder, Ph.D., Justin Brown, & Laurie Johnson Public Health Program, Department of Family & Preventive Medicine, University of Utah “I’m often wrong, but never in doubt.” ~ Ivy Baker Priest

2. The Public Health Program • Public Health Program part of the Department of Family & Preventive Medicine in the UU School of Medicine • Five full-time faculty members; 12 adjunct faculty; 14 affiliated faculty • An average of 58 students admitted each fall for the previous five years • Program has graduated 550 students as of June 2001 and an additional 116 over the past seven semesters

3. Master of (Science) of Public Health • Conceived in 1975 as a Master of Science in Community Medicine (MSCM) • Evolved into the Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) in 1984 • Master of Public Health (MPH) was added in 1989 • Ph.D. program approved in 1999 but funding (or the lack thereof) postponed accepting the first crop of students until fall 2004 • Programs accredited by the Council of Education for Public Health (CEPH)

4. Introduction to Biostatistics • Textbook: “Principles of Biostatistics” (2nd Edition) by Marcello Pagano & Kimberlee Gauvreau • Two 90 minute lectures per week; all HW problems assigned in almost every chapter • 4 – 6 lab sessions (60 minutes) per week, depending on the size of the class • Lecture attendance strongly encouraged; lab attendance optional but encouraged

5. Lab Manual Conception • Created with version 5 of Stata • Began as a collection of handouts that varied with respect to objective, detail, and format • Although the handouts were created from scratch, some of the questions, examples, & datasets originally came from Rosner or Pagano & Gauvreau and were modified where appropriate

6. Lab Manual Conception… • Lab handouts underwent several iterations to suit the taste of the teaching assistant as well as the current version of Stata • Major overhaul of the handouts coincided with release of version 8 & the graphics capabilities therein • Lab Manual facilitated movement towards uniformity re: teaching Stata in a classroom setting

7. How does this manual differ from Stata help documentation & the suite of Stata User’s books? • Teaches students the essential skills for successful completion of the course homework • Provides a rudimentary introduction to Stata and it’s capabilities • Gives students enough confidence & experience to navigate Stata following course conclusion

9. Advantages vs. Disadvantages • Advantages: • Tailored to the needs of a specific course • Applied flavor --- appropriate for the nature of the program and backgrounds of the students • Introduces topics & techniques when necessary, i.e. as HW problems necessitate • Disadvantages: • Tailored to the needs of a specific course • Does not introduce students to more sophisticated topics • Does not discuss in detail the programming features in Stata, e.g. .do & .ado files, -foreach-, -forvalues-, etc.

10. Structure • 15 weeks, 16 labs, & 22 chapters… • Lab schedule is intended to coincide with the material being taught in the corresponding week’s lecture

12. Lab Section Structure • Introduce topic • Introduce relevant Stata syntax • Work example or problem from text • Explanation & Interpretation of output

20. The Lab & the Lab Manual • Facilitates teaching of the material • Allows those students with a keen & intuitive understanding of the software to skip the labs and, on the flip side, allows struggling students more opportunity to learn Stata via increased TA availability • Promotes autonomy?

21. Implications for Biostatistics Course & PH Program • Movement towards decreasing number of labs offered in Fall 2005 --- in Fall 2004, many students opted not to attend lab after receiving the manual • Further builds infrastructure for the Biostatistics I & II Courses thereby providing more opportunity for students to explore and focus on more sophisticated concepts & techniques

22. Reception of the Lab Manual • Students: • Easier to access the material • Provides more time to focus on the statistical concepts & machinery while minimizing the “Wow, I didn’t realize the genius behind ANOVA…now how do I do this in Stata??” that often plagues students in introductory statistics courses • Faculty: • Provides more opportunity for faculty to impart the genius behind, well, ANOVA (insert your favorite technique here, or the technique most in vogue)

23. Teaching Stata: Reflections • Interactive command window: can view results immediately, easier to follow & correct student errors; conducive to lab setting • Stata *relatively* easy to teach: possible to write code, provide demonstrations, & solve problems on the fly (disclaimer: my experience is limited to my tenure as a Masters graduate student) • Students working for the government often presented with conflicting obligation to learn Stata for the course but required to use SAS for work --- reasonable attempts made to compare & contrast where appropriate

24. Using Stata: Reflections • Syntax is intuitive: ‘when you want Stata to do something, you tell it what to do first, followed by what you want Stata to do it to’ • Stata listserve: Good resource for developing Stata skills • Previous students have indicated that Stata’s learning curve isn’t nearly as steep when compared to SAS • The concepts and techniques taught in the Stata lab provide a good foundation for the students that eventually take the follow-up “Introduction to Biostatistics, II” course as well as an “Introduction to SAS” course

25. Questions? Comments? Thank You!

26. References • Rosner, Bernard. “Fundamentals of Biostatistics” (Fourth Edition). Duxbury Press. 1995. • Pagano, Marcello & Kimberlee Gauvreau. “Principles of Biostatistics” (Second Edition). Duxbury Press. 2000.