By Dana McGuire, Jane Oppenlander
Information
Research is a required component of health sciences and health practitioner education. Learning statistics is essential for the research track, but is often academically challenging for students who do not see this subject as relevant to their profession. Clarkson University has developed several courses employing modern statistical pedagogy (e.g., GAISE Guidelines) to better integrate statistics in the context of clinical problems and scenarios. These hands-on learning techniques are employed with students in our bioethics, healthcare management, occupational therapy, and physical therapy programs to facilitate mastering evidence-based practice. These activities prepare students to be skilled consumers of peer-reviewed literature and translators of data to multiple audiences (patients and clinicians). This approach aligns well with and reinforces other clinical coursework these students take simultaneously. Students use and create datasets to develop research questions they are interested in, examine and interpret their data by creating posters, and discuss the clinical bottom line through presentations and journal clubs. These authentic assessments not only teach statistical concepts, but prepare students for their professional roles. These courses have been taught in both onsite and online formats. We will outline our activities, lessons learned, and discuss future plans to assess the efficacy of this approach.