Syllabus
Course Description
This course introduces causal diagrams as tools for researchers who study the effects of treatments, exposures, and policies. The course focuses on translating expert knowledge into a causal diagram, drawing causal diagrams under different assumptions, and using causal diagrams to identify common biases and guide data analysis. The first part of the course introduces the theory of causal diagrams and describe its applications to causal inference. The second part of the course presents a series of case studies that highlight the practical applications of causal diagrams to real-world questions from the health and social sciences.
Course Outline
Lesson 1: Causal Diagrams
Released on September 26, 2017
Lesson 2: Confounding
Released on October 3, 2017
Lesson 3: Selection Bias
Released on October 10, 2017
Lesson 4: Measurement Bias/ Putting it All Together
Released on October 17, 2017
Lesson 5: Time-varying Treatments
Released on October 24, 2017
Cases:
Released on October 31, 2017
The Birth Weight Paradox with Dr. Allen Wilcox
Measurement Bias in Memory Loss with Dr. Maria Glymour
Confounding in Mediation Analysis with Dr. Tyler VanderWeele
Genes as Instrumental Variables with Dr. Sonja Swanson
Certificate Requirements
To earn a certificate, the learner must earn a score of 70% or greater by March 29, 2018.
Acknowledgements
Project Lead: April Opoliner
Lead Content Developer: Barbra Dickermen
Assessment Developer: Yumeng Ren
Accessibility Developer: Rayna Jhaveri
Video Editor: Jen Walker
Technical Support: Shilpa Idnani
Illustrator/Animator: Josh McKible
And thanks to the HarvardX video team!
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