KIND network update
Week beginning Mon 15th July 2024
Dear colleagues,
Welcome to our regular KIND network update. We’ve got several training sessions coming up next week, and as usual full details can be found on our Teams channel and on our training pages.
I’m pleased to say that there’s now a brief outline of our intended minimum standards doc for data collection, which we’ll be reviewing over the coming weeks. I’m also going to be developing some more advanced Power BI training during the summer, and would appreciate any input that you might have on work that goes beyond our current beginner’s training course.
No update next week as we’ll be disappearing for a brief break, but hope to see you at something soon.
Brendan
Training
There’s no need to register for these drop-in training sessions. You should be able to follow the link on the day - although please note you’ll need to join the KIND Teams channel to follow the chat, and to access sample data files etc. You can see all the forthcoming sessions, and a menu of possible training sessions, on the new training micro-site.
| Session | Date | Area | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lambda formulas in Excel | 13:00-13:30 Mon 15th July 2024 | Excel | 🌶🌶 : intermediate-level |
| Parameterised Rmarkdown and Quarto | 15:00-16:00 Mon 15th July 2024 | R | 🌶🌶 : intermediate-level |
| Getting more out of dplyr | 10:30-12:00 Wed 17th July 2024 | R | 🌶🌶 : intermediate-level |
| Power Query - a practical introduction | 14:30-16:00 Wed 17th July 2024 | Power BI / Excel | 🌶 :beginner-level |
Events
SCODAS meetings, our social sessions, and the community meetups are on summer hiatus, and will return in late August. Please get in touch if you have ideas for new sessions - you can see a schematic list of possible topics on the KIND resources page.
Book of the week
Aviva Petrie and Caroline Sabin. 2000. Medical Statistics at a Glance. ISBN 9780632050756, Worldcat link. There are a lot of statistics textbooks out there. As it came up during a training session this week, I wanted to mention one that I thought was particularly useful for people in the KIND workforce. Although originally written for medical students, this book is an excellent quick source of reliable knowledge about core statistical pricinples and techniques. I’m recommending an older edition - and there are lots of newer editions available too - partly because this older edition is much more concise than the later versions, but also because this edition is one of the very few books that I’ve used every week or so since I was a student, particularly for the statistical tables and test selection flowcharts. Highly recommended, many copies available in various libraries across Scotland, and some pleasing shock-of-the-old about data entry techniques from the late 1990s. See also the many library copies available via the Knowledge Network
Resource of the week
To accompany the book of the week, there are a series of neat interactive visualisations for understanding common statistical concepts at rpsychologist.com. I found the non-inferiority testing widget particularly helpful.