Introduction

Welcome! This resource offers an interactive learning experience for introductory biostatistics. This resource was designed with the course BIOS:4120 Introduction to Biostatistics at the University of Iowa in mind, but could be used in any introductory statistics or biostatistics course. We combine textual explanations and embedded interactive Shiny applications, to provide students with an engaging learning resource that offers an intuitive illustration of core statistical concepts. The applications and associated exercises are targeted at conceptional understanding, as opposed to calculations.

At this point in time, we provide chapters on:

  • Introduction to biostatistics
  • Data and data summaries
  • Study design and bias
  • Randomness, probability, and simulation
  • Probability distributions
  • Sampling distributions and Central Limit Theorem
  • Confidence intervals and hypothesis testing

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the funding which made the creation of this resource possible, provided by a University of Iowa Libraries OpenHawks grant.

We would also like to thank Patrick Breheny, Knute Carter, and Jacob Oleson, whose course notes helped inform some of the material covered in this textbook.