Bayesian Statistics Using R

Offered By: University of Canterbury via edX

Course Description

Overview

Bayesian approach is becoming increasingly popular in all fields of data analysis, including but not limited to epidemiology, ecology, economics, and political sciences. It also plays an increasingly important role in data mining and deep learning.

This program provides a practical introduction to applied Bayesian data analysis, combining theory, philosophy and computational facility with the emphasis on formulating and answering real life questions. The two courses provide a broad overview of the fundamentals of Bayesian inference via clear practical examples and may serve as a stepping stone towards any other, more specialized, topic in Bayesian statistics.

Syllabus

Courses under this program:
Course 1: Introduction to Bayesian Statistics Using R

Learn the fundamentals of Bayesian approach to data analysis, and practice answering real life questions using R.

Course 2: Advanced Bayesian Statistics Using R

Now that you know the basics of Bayesian inference, dive deeper to explore its richness and flexibility more fully. Let’s take a closer look at modeling latent variables, Bayesian model averaging, generalised linear models, and MCMC methods

Courses

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6 weeks, 5-10 hours a week, 5-10 hours a week
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Basics of Bayesian Data Analysis Using R is part one of the Bayesian Data Analysis in R professional certificate.

Bayesian approach is becoming increasingly popular in all fields of data analysis, including but not limited to epidemiology, ecology, economics, and political sciences. It also plays an increasingly important role in data mining and deep learning. Let this course be your first step into Bayesian statistics.

Here, you will find a practical introduction to applied Bayesian data analysis with the emphasis on formulating and answering real life questions. You will learn how to combine the data generating mechanism, likelihood, with prior distribution using Bayes’ Theorem to produce the posterior distribution. You will investigate the underlying theory and fundamental concepts by way of simple and clear practical examples, including a case of linear regression.

You will be introduced to the Gibbs sampler – the simplest version of the powerful Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm. And you will see how the popular R-software can be used in this context, and encounter some Bayesian R packages .

A facility in basic algebra and calculus as well as programming in R is recommended.
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6 weeks, 5-10 hours a week, 5-10 hours a week
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Advanced Bayesian Data Analysis Using R is part two of the Bayesian Data Analysis in R professional certificate.

This course is directed at people who are already familiar with the fundamentals of Bayesian inference. It explores further the concepts, methods, and algorithms introduced in the part one (Introductory Bayesian Data Analysis Using R).

The course places mixed effects regression models useful for experiments with repeated measures or additional hierarchy often encountered in biostatistics, ecology and health sciences among others within the Bayesian context. It takes a closer look at the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms, why they work and how to implement them in the R programming language. Convergence assessment and visualisation of the results are discussed in some detail. The course also explores Bayesian model averaging, often used in machine learning, all within the context of practical examples.

Finally, we discuss different kinds of missing data, and the Bayesian methods of dealing with such situations.

Prior facility in basic algebra and calculus as well as programming in R is highly recommended.

Taught by

Elena Moltchanova