This past June, we had a new, virtual short course that provided a non-technical introduction to concepts in causality for researchers in a wide range of clinical and social-science fields. In just two half-days, top experts from the University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers University covered a variety of foundational topics, grounded in real-world applications. Attendees had a basic understanding of statistical regression modeling.
The schedule for the short course is listed below. We plan to have additional courses in the late fall of 2020.
JUNE 11
| Time | Title | Presenter |
| 9:00 - 9:30 am | A brief history of causality | Dylan Small, PhD |
| 9:30 - 11:30 am | Basic concepts: association versus causation, confounding, directed acyclic graphs, potential outcomes framework, average causal effect | |
| 11:30 - 1:00 pm | Heterogeneity of treatment effect, mediation | Jason Roy, PhD |
JUNE 12
| Time | Title | Presenter |
| 9:00 - 10:30 am | Propensity scores: Matching, inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) | Andrew Spieker, PhD |
| 10:30 - 12:00 pm | Instrumental variables | Nandita Mitra, PhD |
| 12:00 - 1:00 pm | Causal study designs: Difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity | Luke Keele, PhD |