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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Design and Interpretation of Clinical Trials by Johns Hopkins University

4.7
stars
4,282 ratings

About the Course

Clinical trials are experiments designed to evaluate new interventions to prevent or treat disease in humans. The interventions evaluated can be drugs, devices (e.g., hearing aid), surgeries, behavioral interventions (e.g., smoking cessation program), community health programs (e.g. cancer screening programs) or health delivery systems (e.g., special care units for hospital admissions). We consider clinical trials experiments because the investigators rather than the patients or their doctors select the treatment the patients receive. Results from randomized clinical trials are usually considered the highest level of evidence for determining whether a treatment is effective because trials incorporates features to ensure that evaluation of the benefits and risks of treatments are objective and unbiased. The FDA requires that drugs or biologics (e.g., vaccines) are shown to be effective in clinical trials before they can be sold in the US. The course will explain the basic principles for design of randomized clinical trials and how they should be reported. In the first part of the course, students will be introduced to terminology used in clinical trials and the several common designs used for clinical trials, such as parallel and cross-over designs. We will also explain some of the mechanics of clinical trials, like randomization and blinding of treatment. In the second half of the course, we will explain how clinical trials are analyzed and interpreted. Finally, we will review the essential ethical consideration involved in conducting experiments on people....

Top reviews

SS

Feb 25, 2023

awesome detailedoverviwe of clinical trials. it gave me a new insight. Improved chances of my job selection in the field. I improved on subject a lot during the course. Thank you teachers and coursera

TS

Jul 3, 2018

High quality course ! covering important areas and detailed lectures, more and better than a mere introduction. Congrats ! My only regret : I'd have liked to hear more about NI and equivalence trials

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601 - 625 of 718 Reviews for Design and Interpretation of Clinical Trials

By Fiona C

Dec 6, 2020

This course has been useful to learn. The most disappointing about this course was that other students did not participate in the discussion seriously which made the discussion portion of no benefit to learners like me who are willing to participate seriously in the discussion. It highly discourage learners to participate in the discussion potion for each week.

By Sergio H P

Apr 25, 2022

Excelente curso, material didáctico que te mantiene entretenido. La dificultad de los examenes es la justa. En mi caso por una cuestión personal no pude finalizar el curso en el plazo estimado y se me permitió modificar la fecha, eso me pareció muy bueno ya que me permitió finalizar el curso sin perder mi progreso. Lo recomiendo!

By Mrinmoyee K C

May 5, 2021

Thanks to the coordinators. I have gathered knowledge in many topics. It is really helpful.

I have the following suggestions:

Kindly avoid long sentences and overlapping statements

More clarity would be better (through citing more examples) when explaining the statistical parameters (helpful for the beginners)

Best regards

Mrinmoyee

By Monika Z

Sep 30, 2022

Overall good introduction to clinical trials. Easy to follow and understand the key concepts of CT design, analysis and evaluation of results. Good course for people who already have some idea about reserach methods in the clinical field as several terms wouldn't be so obvious for people without this experience.

By Simon P

Nov 20, 2017

It was fine. Janet talked kind of slowly, but the option to increase the video speed made this a non-significant problem. The difficulty was fine for a newcomer to the field of clinical research, and I liked the use of examples. The examples did use a bit much repetition from previous info sections. Good course!

By Akshay C

Oct 22, 2016

Clear, precise and very interesting content. I am working with Clinical Trials for 18 month, this helped me to learn about the bigger picture.

Suggestion to Course creators: A module focussed on what is a Clinical Trial before we start with module 1 would be extremely helpful.

By Sayandip M

Oct 22, 2019

A fantastic foundational course that covers all the essentials to understand and appreciate the design and interpretation of clinical trials. Lectures are succinct followed by really challenging quizzes which allows one to test his/her understanding of the subject matter.

By Alexandre F G

Feb 22, 2017

Well done, very systematic and well selected, well structured, focused analysis supported by appropriate examples, definitions and discussions. Lectures are a little bit dry, but I guess this might be due in part to the nature of the subject! Thank you!

Alex Ginev

By Shruti G

Jan 17, 2020

From this course, I learned a lot but many slides had way too much text and were difficult to read and listen to at the same time. more diagrams and flowcharts would be highly appreciated. Examples for different case scenarios were very helpful in learning.

By mariella b l c

Mar 27, 2019

I'm very pleased with the design and interpretation of clinical trials course. It is well constructed and the lectures are interesting and focused.

I recomnend this course for those who want to gain some knownledge about this subject.

By Nam N

Sep 18, 2019

This course provides me with valuable new knowledge about clinical trials. Although I had taught myself before, I still get various interesting points, e.g. types of trial designs, ITT analysis, etc. Thank you very much!

By Toni R

Jun 29, 2019

Maybe the tests are a bit easy, apart from that the lectures are well defined and cover in detail the topics related to the course. The example trials are very well selected to understand the information of the lectures.

By Chao W

Dec 8, 2017

Good explanations but the slides are quite static. When the lectuer refers something on the slide maybe they can consider also highlight on the slight, e.g. using animations, especially for complex tables?

By Valentina

Nov 19, 2020

Good course overall. Some information was complex and the slides were not always complete. I personally found the first 2-3 quizzes quite difficult. However, the course is useful and interesting.

By Nina H P

Oct 4, 2016

The powerpoints and audio lectures are very clear and concise, much appreciated. I would also appreciate more exercises or reading materials, to help solidify our understanding of the topics.

By Harsha K

May 6, 2020

As a new learner of clinical trials, I learned a lot about the design of randomized clinical trials and the various factors that could impact the outcomes. I thorough;y enjoyed the course.

By Isabel O

May 13, 2020

Very informative, creates a good base for further work. I enjoyed the examples within the lectures and especially appreciate the chapter of ethics as I find it extremly important.

By Anirudh P

Sep 10, 2020

To anyone who likes statistics, analytics, interpretation of scientific literature or the story behind the design of credible clinical trials, this course is a good recommend!

By 杨仕

Apr 10, 2024

Good course, but too fundemental for students with relavent educational background like me. Might be a good choice for those who has little experience of clincial trials.

By Muhamad A B A B

Aug 25, 2020

Thorough course with pretty good explanation. However it can be quite difficult to understand if you have limited pre-existing knowledge. The quizzes are quite tricky.

By MEENA R

Sep 20, 2016

The course clearly explains the concepts of clinical trials with great detail. The course was taught in a structured manner and helped me gain knowledge in this field.

By Tomas M

Sep 17, 2020

Great summary of CTs! Shame that it is only from 2013 and does not reflect current approaches to management of clinical trials, would be worth to update this course.

By Rosina T

Feb 17, 2020

Very good course. I would prefer to have subtitles (in english or spanish) in every week, but the content was really good. I hope to learn more about clinical trials

By lingjing

May 28, 2019

Excellent classes for beginners in the clinical trials.I learnt about basic knowledge, design points and constitutive interpretation for different kinds of trials~

By Samuel K

Mar 4, 2018

Pitched at the right level as an introductory course. Having some exposure to clinical trials helps complete in a timely manner, but there's still a lot to learn