About this course: This course covers commonly used statistical inference methods for numerical and categorical data. You will learn how to set up and perform hypothesis tests, interpret p-values, and report the results of your analysis in a way that is interpretable for clients or the public. Using numerous data examples, you will learn to report estimates of quantities in a way that expresses the uncertainty of the quantity of interest. You will be guided through installing and using R and RStudio (free statistical software), and will use this software for lab exercises and a final project. The course introduces practical tools for performing data analysis and explores the fundamental concepts necessary to interpret and report results for both categorical and numerical data
Created by: Duke University
Taught by: Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, Assistant Professor of the Practice
Department of Statistical Science
| Basic Info | Course 2 of 5 in the Statistics with R Specialization |
| Level | Beginner |
| Commitment | 5 weeks of study, 5-7 hours/week |
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
About the Specialization and the Course
This short module introduces basics about Coursera specializations and courses in general, this specialization: Statistics with R, and this course: Inferential Statistics. Please take several minutes to browse them through. Thanks for joining us in this course!
2 readings
- Reading: About Statistics with R Specialization
- Reading: More about Inferential Statistics
Central Limit Theorem and Confidence Interval
Welcome to Inferential Statistics! In this course we will discuss Foundations for Inference. Check out the learning objectives, start watching the videos, and finally work on the quiz and the labs of this week. In addition to videos that introduce new concepts, you will also see a few videos that walk you through application examples related to the week's topics. In the first week we will introduce Central Limit Theorem (CLT) and confidence interval.
7 videos, 4 readings, 1 practice quiz
- Reading: Lesson Learning Objectives
- Video: Introduction
- Video: Sampling Variability and CLT
- Video: CLT (for the mean) examples
- Reading: Lesson Learning Objectives
- Video: Confidence Interval (for a mean)
- Video: Accuracy vs. Precision
- Video: Required Sample Size for ME
- Video: CI (for the mean) examples
- Reading: Week 1 Suggested Readings and Practice Exercises
- Practice Quiz: Week 1 Practice Quiz
- Reading: Week 1 Lab Instructions
Graded: Week 1 Quiz
Graded: Week 1 Lab
WEEK 2
Inference and Significance
Welcome to Week Two! This week we will discuss formal hypothesis testing and relate testing procedures back to estimation via confidence intervals. These topics will be introduced within the context of working with a population mean, however we will also give you a brief peek at what's to come in the next two weeks by discussing how the methods we're learning can be extended to other estimators. We will also discuss crucial considerations like decision errors and statistical vs. practical significance. The labs for this week will illustrate concepts of sampling distributions and confidence levels.
7 videos, 4 readings, 1 practice quiz
- Reading: Lesson Learning Objectives
- Video: Another Introduction to Inference
- Video: Hypothesis Testing (for a mean)
- Video: HT (for the mean) examples
- Reading: Lesson Learning Objectives
- Video: Inference for Other Estimators
- Video: Decision Errors
- Video: Significance vs. Confidence Level
- Video: Statistical vs. Practical Significance
- Reading: Week 2 Suggested Readings and Practice Exercises
- Practice Quiz: Week 2 Practice Quiz
- Reading: Week 2 Lab Instructions
Graded: Week 2 Quiz
Graded: Week 2 Lab
WEEK 3
Inference for Comparing Means
Welcome to Week Three of the course! This week we will introduce the t-distribution and comparing means as well as a simulation based method for creating a confidence interval: bootstrapping. If you have questions or discussions, please use this week's forum to ask/discuss with peers.
11 videos, 4 readings, 1 practice quiz
- Reading: Lesson Learning Objectives
- Video: Introduction
- Video: t-distribution
- Video: Inference for a mean
- Video: Inference for comparing two independent means
- Video: Inference for comparing two paired means
- Video: Power
- Reading: Lesson Learning Objectives
- Video: Comparing more than two means
- Video: ANOVA
- Video: Conditions for ANOVA
- Video: Multiple comparisons
- Video: Bootstrapping
- Reading: Week 3 Suggested Readings and Practice Exercises
- Practice Quiz: Week 3 Practice Quiz
- Reading: Week 3 Lab Instructions
Graded: Week 3 Quiz
Graded: Week 3 Lab
WEEK 4
Inference for Proportions
Welcome to Week Four of our course! In this unit, we’ll discuss inference for categorical data. We use methods introduced this week to answer questions like “What proportion of the American public approves of the job of the Supreme Court is doing?”.
11 videos, 4 readings, 1 practice quiz
- Reading: Lesson Learning Objectives
- Video: Introduction
- Video: Sampling Variability and CLT for Proportions
- Video: Confidence Interval for a Proportion
- Video: Hypothesis Test for a Proportion
- Video: Estimating the Difference Between Two Proportions
- Video: Hypothesis Test for Comparing Two Proportions
- Reading: Lesson Learning Objectives
- Video: Small Sample Proportions
- Video: Examples
- Video: Comparing Two Small Sample Proportions
- Video: Chi-Square GOF Test
- Video: The Chi-Square Independence Test
- Reading: Week 4 Suggested Readings and Practice Exercises
- Practice Quiz: Week 4 Practice Quiz
- Reading: Week 4 Lab Instructions
Graded: Week 4 Quiz
Graded: Week 4 Lab
WEEK 5
Data Analysis Project
In this week you will use the data set provided to complete and report on a data analysis question. Please read the background information, review the report template (downloaded from the link in Lesson Project Information), and then complete the peer review assignment.
1 reading
- Reading: Project Information
Graded: Data Analysis Project
FAQs
How It Works
Coursework
Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.
Help from Your Peers
Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.
Certificates
Earn official recognition for your work, and share your success with friends, colleagues, and employers.
Creators
Duke University
Duke University has about 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students and a world-class faculty helping to expand the frontiers of knowledge. The university has a strong commitment to applying knowledge in service to society, both near its North Carolina campus and around the world.
Pricing
| Audit | Purchase Course | |
|---|---|---|
| Access to course materials | Available | Available |
| Access to graded materials | Not available | Available |
| Receive a final grade | Not available | Available |
| Earn a shareable Course Certificate | Not available | Available |
Ratings and Reviews
Pretty challenging and helpful.
very good course, I have learned a lot of ideas about inference, the project for every week helps students to learn R quickly!
Its amazing! Clearly makes you understand the concepts and makes you understand how to apply them.
Coursera provides universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online.
© 2017 Coursera Inc. All rights reserved.
Best place to strengthen your basic concepts of inferential statistics. It has been a year since I took this course and I still refer it often.