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Online Workshops
Calculating Power and Sample Size
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Learn the theory, the logic, and the steps to calculate power and sample sizes so you can easily get started on your research project.
Every granting agency and many committees require sample size and power estimates before funding a study.
But most statistics classes don't teach you how to calculate them. Sure, maybe for one-sample t-tests, if anything, but not for the statistics you need to actually use.
Mainstream statistical software makes it easy to calculate power after the fact, which is dubious, at best, and prone to misinterpretation.
This 3-hour workshop will get you up to speed on the meaning and logic of power, sample size, and how to calculate them. We'll start with a review, from the beginning, of what power means and how it relates to statistical tests, effect sizes, standard deviations, and sample size.
You will learn how to calculate simple sample estimates using two types of specialized software (one free and one commercial).
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We've designed the format to support your learning and convenience:
Web based online workshop. You'll get:
1. Training Materials
- 3 hours of training videos to download and watch on your own time (and keep forever). The videos are screen shots of what is happening on my computer screen. They include both presentations as I go over the concepts and software demonstrations.
- pdf handouts of the presentation slides for note-taking
- exercises to practice what you've learned, with answers to check your work.
- written, searchable pdf enhanced transcripts of all videos.
We call these enhanced transcripts, because not only do we have them transcribed by a real person and edit them extensively to make them easier to read, on each page we import the presentation slides and screenshots so you can see all the relevant graphs and equations as you're reading.
- recommended resources and references to cement and expand your learning.
2. Three Live Q&A Webinars
After you've had about a week to work through all the training materials, we'll meet in a live Question & Answer webinar.
We are offering three Q&A sessions scheduled on three different days at three different times to meet the needs of any time zone and work schedule.
3. Private workshop website
This is where you can submit questions and get all the workshop materials.
This private website contains everything you need: Workshop materials to download, bonus videos, the exercises, Q&A information and recordings, a contact form to get some help if you get stuck with anything.
But best of all, you can submit questions. So if something isn't clear while you're watching the training, pause your video and type in your question. We'll answer quick questions right there on the website, and things that are more in-depth, we'll cover in the next Q&A.
It's all the advantages of a live workshop without the disadvantages.
You don't have to drop a few thousand travelling to a workshop and take a few days off work. And best of all, because you’re not travelling, we don’t have to concentrate an overwhelming amount of information into a marathon session. We can spread it out in digestible amounts.
So you really learn it. Inside out.
And best of all, unlike live workshops, you keep the workshop recordings forever. So if you need to review the material in a few months, or years, or find yourself needing to run a new type of model, you can watch it again. |
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You will learn:
- A review of power, effect sizes, hypothesis tests, and Type I and Type II errors, explained so you get an intuitive understanding
- How power, effect size, and standard deviation relate to sample size in a variety of statistical tests--including t-test, ANOVAs, linear and logistic regressions
- The logic of sample size calculations, so you can apply it to any problem
- The five pieces of information you need to do any sample size calculation, where to get them, and the steps for implementing them
- Your options for increasing power in a study
- The importance of effect sizes to power and sample size calcuations and the best way to measure them in a variety of tests
- Why it really isn't useful to do power calculations after running a study
- Where sample size calculations fit into the eleven steps of data analysis
- How to do simple sample size calculations using a free online calculator
- How to do more complex calculations using StudySize 2.0 Software and G*Power
- Examples of prospective sample size estimates for a two sample t-test, and ANOVA, a multiple regression, and a logistic regression analysis in all three software packages
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| What our Students Say About Our Workshops: |
"Karen is a fantastically knowledgeable and patient person. There are no wrong or stupid questions when working with her, and everyone is encouraged to participate. As well, really helpful for me was the option to go through all the materials at the time that worked best for me and to access and go through the same materials over and over again if needed. Of great help were transcripts of presentations, as I can always have them with me to guide my stats analyses. Fantastic workshop!"
- Danijela Gasevic
Simon Fraser University
"This course is a good refresher for those who have covered it before & great introduction for those with little or no knowledge of power and sample size calculations "
- Jacqui Wilson
Senior Research Assistant
The University of Newcastle Australia
"Karen has a gift for explaining and teaching applied statistics. I really appreciate her patient, pleasant, down-to-earth manner. My previous statistics professors were knowledgeable, but un-engaging, and not easy to understand. I wish I would have had a teacher like Karen in my grad program. I also appreciated having the transcripts to the modules and the syntax! Nice to have access to Karen et al. for a whole year when I go back to review this material. The Q&A's were also helpful because you could hear real-life examples others were working on, from different angles. Helps to reinforce the concepts."
- Joanne Basta
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This workshop is for you if you:
- Need to calculate sample size estimates for grant proposals, dissertation proposals, or just want to be able to make sure a research study is worth doing.
- Will be writing a dissertation proposal this semester
- Learned the basics of power and sample size in statistics class, but never really understood how to do them in real research situations or in anything harder than a t-test
- Have a statistical consultant available to help you calculate sample sizes, but need to understand what pieces of information to hand over to her or him and how to get that information.
Prerequisites:
- You will get the most out of the workshop if you have had at least two statistics classes and experience in data analysis.
You do not need experience in any specific statistical software. We will be using three software packages--a free online java applet, G*Power, and StudySize 2.0. G*Power is available free.
You can get a free 3-week trial download of StudySize 2.0, which I recommend you do just before the workshop. Download information is available on our workshop website. |
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- Training videos. A conceptual overview, a walk through the steps, and software demonstrations make up about 3 hours of training.
- Three 60-minute Webinar Q&A sessions. Just your questions and my answers. They will be scheduled a few days after the training materials are released so you have time to watch the videos, do the exercises, and even try things out for your study. Then come back with questions. It's using these techniques in the context of your variables that cements your learning.
- Access to our private workshop web site. We’ve created a membership site that you become a member of. For a year.
Submit questions, get call-in information for Q&A sessions, ask for customer support, and download handouts, recordings, and bonus materials. Then come back after the workshop is over and watch the videos again and ask questions as they come up for you – for a whole year.
- PDF handouts of the presentation, on which you can take notes.
- written, searchable pdf enhanced transcripts of all videos.
We call these enhanced transcripts, because not only do we have them transcribed by a real person and edit them extensively to make them easier to read, on each page we import the presentation slides and screenshots so you can see all the relevant graphs and equations as you're reading.
- recommended resources and references to cement and expand your learning.
- You are encouraged to ask questions about calculating your own sample size estimates in addition to general questions about the topic. (But please keep questions to the topic of the workshop so that they’re useful for everyone).
- Exercises and answers. (Yes, homework!). You’ll get more out of the workshop if you participate fully by doing homework. We suggest you use one of the data sets provided, so you can check answers, then redo them on your own. It's when you do statistics on your own data that it really starts to make sense.
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| The Instructor: |
Karen Grace-Martin, the workshop instructor and founder of The Analysis Factor, is a professional statistical consultant with masters degrees in both applied statistics and social psychology. Her own career started in psychology research, where her frustration in applying statistics to her data led her to learn more statistics.
Karen was a professional statistical consultant at Cornell University for seven years before founding The Analysis Factor. She has guided and trained researchers through their statistical analysis for over 15 years. Her focus is on helping statistics practitioners gain an intuitive understanding of how statistics is applied to real data in research studies.
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| Dates & Times: |
The workshop training materials will be released on:
The live Question & Answer sessions will be held:
- Tuesday, June 12 at 11am Eastern (UTC-4)
- Thursday, June 14 at 7pm Eastern (UTC-4)
- Monday, June 18 at 12pm (noon) Eastern (UTC-4)
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| Registration: |
Workshop Price - $147
($50 Student Discount applies.)
PAY IN FULL: $147
PAYMENT PLAN: 3 payments of $49
(Your first payment will be billed today and your credit card will automatically be billed every 30 days for the remaining 2 payments)
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| Free Bonuses |
Everyone will receive two free bonus recordings:
1. A 60 minute Audio Presentation: The 11 Steps to Performing Any Statistical Model
All statistical modeling--whether ANOVA, Multiple Regression, Poisson Regression, Multilevel Model--is about understanding the relationship between independent and dependent variables. The content differs, but as a data analyst, you need to follow the same 11 steps to complete your modeling.
This audio will give you an overview of these 11 steps:
- what they are
- why each one is important
- the general order in which to do them
- on which steps the different types of modeling differ and where they're the same
Understanding the steps will make your modeling more efficient and keep you on track.
2. A 60-minute Video Presentation: The First 3 Steps to Statistical Modeling: How to Clarify the Research Question, the Design, and the Variables
All statistical modeling--whether ANOVA, Multiple Regression, Poisson Regression, Multilevel Model--is about understanding the relationship between independent and dependent variables. The first 3 steps in modeling set up the entire rest of the analysis.
1. Write out research questions in theoretical and operational terms
2. Design the study or define the design
3. Choose the variables for answering research questions and determine their level of measurement
It is the way you do these three steps that determines the rest of the analysis. Doing them explicitly and doing them well can save you days of time and endless frustration.
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Your registration fee is fully refundable up to 72 hours in advance minus a $35 administration fee. Because enrollment is limited, no refunds will be granted after the program begins.
That said, your satisfaction is guaranteed. If you participate in the full workshop and find you are not satisfied for any reason, we will give you a full refund. Just notify us within 90 days of the conclusion of the program. |
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