Outline of a Statistical Consulting Course from:

Statistical Consulting
Javier Cabrera and Andrew McDougall
Springer-Verlag, (2002): 393pp

Course Description

OBJECTIVE:

The creation of a new graduate course on statistical consulting. Students will be exposed to realistic statistical and scientific problems that appear in typical interactions between statisticians and scientists. The lectures will be centered around case studies presented by invited speakers.

AUDIENCE:

Second-Year Graduate Students. The student should be familiar with computing and applied statistical methodology.

PREREQUISITES:

This depends on the level of sophistication possessed by the students and/or desired by the instructor. A possible list of prerequisites are:

Level I

For first-year graduate students, the emphasis of the course can be placed on the communication aspects of statistical consulting. Analysis of case studies would necessarily be restricted to the level of statistical knowledge provided at the institution's undergraduate (senior) level.

• Exploratory data analysis.
• A computing course, where they would get the computing and data analysis base.
• Simple ANOVA, Regression.

Level 2

For a course designed for second year students, the statistical methodology can be extended to include:

• Design of experiments.
• Regression and GLM.
• Methodology or theory course. Theory of statistical computing basics.
• Statistical computing: SAS, S-PLUS (or equivalent) basics.

Level 3

For research-level doctoral students, this type of course can be used to ensure that these students are provided with the type of skills that will make them more attractive propositions for employment after graduation. Specifically, good communication skills are important.

• Exploratory data analysis (A review $\ldots$ perhaps?).
• GLM, multivariate, time series, and categorical models.
• Statistical computing with SAS and S-PLUS.

CLASS SIZE:

Maximum of 12 to 15 students per class, divided into three to five consulting teams. We have observed that students often prefer to work in pairs but this clearly defeats the purpose of interacting as part of a team. We would strongly encourage instructors to maintain ``team'' sizes of at least three.

ASSIGNMENTS

Consulting teams are given an assignment for every case study, with the full dataset, and they must produce a report and in most cases, give a presentation. For every case study the teams have a leader who will give the presentations and write the report. The position of team leader will rotate for different case studies.

CASE STUDIES

It is of great importance to identify good case studies since they are the centerpiece of the course. We have decided to consider case studies from the following groups.

GROUP I

Simple case studies where the answer is well known, but with some interesting statistical and scientific issues to be discussed.
Case studies of Group I will be presented in a one-hour lecture followed by a discussion. As a result of the discussion each team is assigned a project. The data for all case studies must be available to the student.
The following week the students will present the team reports.

GROUP II

More complicated case studies where the statistical problem is generally well defined, but broader in scope than the Group I case studies. Several solutions may need to be evaluated. The complexity may also be partly due to the size or format of the dataset.
Case studies of Group II will be presented in similar format to Group I above.
Preliminary results to be presented in the following week. Discussion and questions addressed. Final presentation in the second week.

GROUP III

Research-oriented case studies where it is hard to pick up the statistical problem but where the students have to do a lot of thinking and the answer may or may not be well known. Several stages of analysis may be needed to obtain suitable results. There may not necessarily be an ``answer'' to the statistical problem.
The following week the students will present the preliminary reports and continue the discussion of the principal issues and come up with the final objectives.
In the second or third week they will do the final presentations.

List of Topics by Week

Week 1

Introduction and organization of the course. The students will form consulting teams that will work together in the preparation and presentation of several reports involving the analysis of case studies.
History of science and the role of statistics. Introduction to the scientific method. Statistical consulting environments. The role of the statistician within a scientific environment.
Text section: Chapter 1
Lecturer: Instructor.

Week 2

Communicating with researchers from other areas. Report writing.
Text section: Chapter 2
Lecturer: Instructor.

Week 3

Methodological aspects. A review of statistical methods that will be used in the course.
An overview of computational tools and statistical software such as SAS and S-PLUS that are available to the students.
Text section: Chapter 3, Appendix B
Lecturer: Instructor.

Week 4

Case Study 1 (from Group I).
Introduction to case studies. Description of the procedure that will be followed for case studies. Format for report writing and presentations by students.
Presentation of Case Study 1 by invited speaker. Discussion.
Assignment of projects to the student teams.
Text section: Chapter 4
Lecturers: Instructor and invited speaker for Case Study 1.

Week 5

Case Study 2 (from Group I).
Presentation by consulting teams of reports from Case Study 1 with videotaping.
Presentation of Case Study 2 by invited speaker. Discussion.
Review of videotape. Discussion.
Assignment of projects to the student teams.
Text section: Review Chapters 2,3,4
Lecturer: Invited speaker for Case Study 2.

Week 6

Case Study 3 (from Group I).
Presentations by consulting teams of the reports from Case Study 2. Discussion.
Assignment of Case Study 3. Projects to the student teams.
Review of reports submitted and presentations. Discussion of communication skills.
Text section: Chapter 6
Lecturer: Instructor.

Week 7

Case Study 4 (from Group II).
Presentations by consulting teams of the reports from Case Study 3.
Presentation of Case Study 4 by invited speaker. Discussion.
Assignment of projects to the student teams.
Research articles and reports from other case studies assigned to students. Discussion on reading about other studies.
Text section: Appendix A
Lecturer: Invited speaker for Case Study 4.

Week 8

Case Study 4 (from Group II).
Progress reports by consulting teams. Preliminary presentations of their initial analyses for Case Study 4.
Discussion, progress evaluation, and revision of the objectives of the projects. Collect research article reports.
Lecturer: Instructor

Week 9

Case Study 5 (from Group II).
Presentations by consulting teams of the reports from Case Study 4.
Presentation of Case Study 5. Discussion of Case Study 5. Review of article reports.
Text section: Chapter 7
Lecturer: Instructor.

Week 10

Progress reports by consulting teams. Preliminary presentations of their initial analyses for Case Study 5.
Discussion, progress evaluation, and revision of the objectives of the projects.
Text section: Chapter 7
Lecturer: Instructor.

Week 11

Case Study 6 (from Group III).
Presentations by consulting teams of the reports from Case Study 5. Second videotaping.
Invited speaker presentation of Case Study 6. Discussion.
Review of videotape. Self-critique of presentations. Assignment of projects to the student teams.
Text section: Chapter 8
Lecturer: Invited speaker for Case Study 6.

Week 12

Case Study 6 (from Group III).
Progress reports by consulting teams. Preliminary presentations of their initial analyses for Case Study 6.
Discussion, progress evaluation, and revision of the objectives of the projects.
Text section: Chapter 8
Lecturer: Instructor.

Week 13

Case Study 7 (unknown difficulty).
Presentations by consulting teams of the reports from Case Study 6.
Presentation of Case Study 7. Deadline: one-week turnaround. Discussion to be led by students.
Assignment of projects.
Text section: Chapter 9
Lecturer: Instructor.

Week 14

Case Study 7.
Presentations of final reports for Case Study 7.
Turn in reports for final evaluations. Order pizza.
Open discussion.
Lecturer: Instructor.

Week 15

After Week 14 (optional). Real life experiences. Limited internships, or consulting projects.