By Samantha Estrada (New Mexico State University) and Lucas W. Kirby (New Mexico State University) and Ladybirdy Wong (New Mexico State University)
Information
Biostatistics is a branch of applied statistics focused on the health sciences. In Master of Public Health (MPH) programs, the introductory biostatistics course may be the only exposure students have to statistics and research (Sullivan et al., 2014). Thus, we believe in a well-rounded statistics education for MPH graduate students. This study analyzes data collected from graduate level introductory statistics syllabi from MPH programs across the United States to explore patterns. We focused on courses that were categorized as online or online synchronous in our initial coding. We contacted the CAUSE listserv, reached out to administrative assistants to request syllabi, and we searched online for publicly available syllabi from 2020 to 2025. Our sample included N = 38 syllabi, however, we determined only 14 of these syllabi were delivered in an online environment. We performed a content analysis of the data, conducting a comprehensive review of biostatistics syllabi to assess emphasis on each topic. In content analysis we identified patterns and the frequencies for categories and developed a codebook. Once our syllabi were coded we conducted descriptive statistics. Additionally, we used Fisher et al.'s (2022) rubric as one metric to assess the quality of online teaching. The scoring process assigns a numerical value to the syllabi's content. We plan to calculate agreement between coders and discuss how the rubric scored in terms of online teaching quality. We will discuss the most frequently used software, textbooks, and assessment practices in the graduate level introductory biostatistics as well.